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Programming Note: Lou Dobbs joins Wolf Blitzer to preview President Bush's prime-time address on immigration on "The Situation Room," Monday at 7 p.m. ET.

Frist: Guard troops the best short-term border fix

President Bush to address country Monday night

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Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, says the federal government must act now to help states secure their borders.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Sunday dismissed concerns about a proposal to use National Guard troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it is the only short-term solution to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

"The only thing that we can do to secure our borders right now is to give our states help, and that is best done through the National Guard," the Tennessee Republican told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

President Bush is scheduled to speak to the nation Monday night from the Oval Office about immigration and border security. (Full story)

Frist could not say whether the president will mention the proposal to bolster border security with National Guard troops.

Bush has discussed the proposal to bolster border security with National Guard troops, along with "a lot of [other] ideas," with members of Congress, national security adviser Stephen Hadley told CNN.

Bush has not made a decision on whether to implement the program, Hadley said, stressing that it "is not a new" idea.

"This is something that's actually already being done," Hadley said. "It's not about militarization of the border. It's about assisting the civilian border patrol in doing their job, providing intelligence, providing support, logistics support and training and these sorts of things."

Under the plan, Pentagon sources have said the federal government will foot the bill for activating several thousand additional National Guard troops to augment security along the U.S.-Mexico border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The troops would remain under control of the states' governors and would be limited to a supporting role, assisting civilian authorities with logistics, intelligence and surveillance, the sources said. But the federal government, not the states, would fund the operation.

The plan has drawn criticism from both major parties.

"I think we have to be very careful here," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, said on ABC's "This Week."

"That's not the role of our National Guard."

Hagel, a sponsor of compromise immigration legislation before the Senate, said the U.S. military is already stretched "as thin as we've ever seen it in modern times" and expressed skepticism over the idea.

"I'll listen to the president, but I've got a lot of questions," Hagel said.

That sentiment echoed Friday's comments by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid who told CNN En Espanol that National Guard forces were too "overextended" and "depleted" by service in Iraq and the Gulf Coast to secure the border.

"We have thousands and thousands of guard and reserve troops in Iraq; now we're going to ask them to go to the border?" the Nevada Democrat said. "I don't think they are able to do that."

Frist dismissed Reid's comment as "whining" and "moaning."

"We've got to secure our borders," he said. "We hear it from the American people, we've got millions of people coming across that border -- first and foremost, secure the border whatever it takes.

"Everything else we've done has failed. We've got to face that. And so we need to bring in, I believe, the National Guard."

Frist also countered criticism from fellow Republican, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said Friday that "going in the direction of the National Guard I think is maybe not the right way to go."

"The federal government should put up the money to create the kind of protection the federal government is responsible to provide," Schwarzenegger told reporters in Sacramento. "I think what we should do is press the federal government that that's their responsibility, not the state's responsibility."

"I think that he too is wrong in the sense that the National Guard shouldn't be used," Frist said. "I do feel it is a federal responsibility to support that National Guard on the border."

In addition to National Guard troops, the Senate leader said he also supports "a wall, a structure, where people can't go under, over, around or through." But he said that any concrete wall should not run the length of the entire border, and that other measures should also be employed.

"It could be the use of UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicles, it could be infrared sensors, it could be sensors on the ground," Frist said. "The point is we have to have a barrier that people cannot cross. Part of it will have to be a structural wall, part of it does not need to be."

Active-duty U.S. troops are barred from domestic law enforcement by a Reconstruction-era law known as Posse Comitatus, but National Guard troops under state control can perform some law enforcement functions.

According to the Border Patrol Web site, the agency employs more than 11,000 agents.

Frist restated his confidence that an immigration bill proposal will be completed before Memorial Day.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, told ABC, "I think it's more likely than not" that it will be law by the November midterm elections.

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