During a visit Monday to the border city of Yuma, the president again expressed his rejection of an amnesty and said that those immigrants currently living here illegally must pay a price for having broken the law.

"The lessons of all these experiences - the lesson of these experiences is clear: All elements of the issue must be addressed together," Bush said.

"We need a comprehensive bill, and that's what I'm working with members of Congress on, a comprehensive immigration bill. And now is the year to get it done," the president said.

He added that the first step is to secure the border and put an end to the operations of people smugglers, who profit from the willingness of desperate migrants to risk their lives.

"Securing the border is a critical part of a strategy for comprehensive immigration reform," Bush told an audience composed mainly of Border Patrol agents. "It is an important part of a reform that is necessary so that the Border Patrol agents down here can do their job more effectively."

He said that by next year it is expected that the number of Border Patrol agents will increase to 18,000.

During his second visit to this region is less than a year, the U.S. president called illegal immigration "a serious problem" that puts pressure on public schools and hospitals, not only in the border states but all across the country.

"Incarceration of criminals who are here illegally strains the Arizona budget," he said. "But there's a lot of other ways it strains the local and state budgets. It brings crime to our communities."

"It's a problem and we need to address it aggressively," Bush said at the Border Patrol station in Yuma.

Bush said that immigrants come to the United States to put food on their tables and do the jobs that American citizens do not want to do.

"And the farmers in this part of the world understand exactly what I'm saying. But so do a lot of other folks around the country. People are coming to work, and many of them have no lawful way to come to America, and so they're sneaking in," the president said.

The president also said he was pleased with the infrastructure in the region, such as "double fencing, all-weather roads, new lighting, mobile cameras."

He added that when he visited the region last May there were more than 400 arrests of illegal migrants every day in the Yuma sector, compared with 140 today; Bush also noted that the number of undocumented foreigners apprehended for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has fallen by nearly 30 percent this year.

But, according to the U.S. leader, immigration reform must also include sanctions against businesses that hire undocumented workers.

The president said the idea of deporting the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States is "impractical," and that therefore he is working with Republicans and Democrats on a program that will give all those people who have work and pay taxes the opportunity to legalize their immigration status after paying a fine.

This is a point that has generated considerable controversy among immigrant advocates because the White House plan would establish a fine of more than $10,000 for those people who want to regularize their status.

Source: Copyright (C) 2007. Agencia EFE S.A.