Bush's Spanish Lessons

Bush had his own housekeeper as an example. Emigrating from a small village in Mexico with her daughter sometime in the mid-'80s, Galvan worked as a domestic for several families in Austin, Texas, before getting a job at the Governor's Mansion just as Bush moved in with his family in 1995, when the twins were 12 years old. According to Anne DeBois, who was the mansion's chief administrator, Galvan taught herself English and how to read. Bush "encouraged her heavily to get her citizenship," says DeBois, who says that Galvan was a legal immigrant with a green card when she started work there. (The White House last week refused to comment on Galvan, except to say that she is a U.S. citizen; White House aides were silent on how she entered the country and what her legal status was at the time.) The Bushes liked Galvan so much that they brought her to Washington in 2001. She lives in the White House, travels with the First Family and looks after their beloved dogs. She has advised the White House chefs on the Bushes' favorite Mexican foods and is said by White House insiders, who refuse to be identified discussing First Family matters, to be "part of the family," which is unusual for staff in the formal, institutionalized Executive Mansion. Laura Bush has included Galvan as a guest at some of her social lunches.

Though the needs of Latinos have always been part of Bush's portfolio as a self-proclaimed "compassionate conservative," immigration reform took a back seat to education and national security during the first five years of the Bush presidency. Meanwhile, as illegal immigrants overwhelmed social services and drove up crime, not just in border states but across the country, a backlash was setting in. Last winter the House of Representatives passed a bill to make illegal immigration a felony, though how the House proposed to arrest and deport 12 million people was left unclear.

At the time, the Bush administration apparently figured that the Senate would "fix" any immigration bill by adding pro-visions for guest workers and a plan to allow illegals to become citizens after paying their dues. But public anger at illegals is peaking. Radio-show host Rush Limbaugh is saying he has never seen his followers so riled up. And when Bush's political adviser Karl Rove met privately with House Republicans after the president's speech, the lawmakers were still in a rebellious mood. On two major occasions--the No Child Left Behind education law in 2002 and Medicare reform in 2003--Bush pressed the House to work with Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Never again, says GOP Rep. Ric Keller of Florida, who pungently told Rove: "If you get into bed with Ted Kennedy, you're going to get more than sleep."

Bush is trying to take the high road. "We cannot build a unified country by inciting people to anger, or playing on anyone's fears or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain," Bush said from the Oval Office. But at least half the House Republicans see a hard line on immigration as smart politics in an election year when the Democrats are threatening to win back control of Congress. With his approval ratings sagging into the mid-30s, Bush probably lacks the clout to force the House GOP to accept a Senate bill that includes steps for illegals to become citizens. The result would be no reforms at all, though it is possible that something could be salvaged in a lame-duck session after the November elections, when political passions have cooled a bit.

Meanwhile, angry citizens continue to take matters into their own hands. Five hours after Bush took off from Yuma, Ariz., where he had staged a photo op driving a dune buggy around the Mexican border, David (Flash) Sharrar stood in a dusty farmyard to brief a circle of so-called Yuma Patriots. They were preparing to go off on a nocturnal search for illegals coming across the border. Sharrar went over the rules and the checklist. No weapons, no altercations. The Patriots are armed only with bright flashlights, which they beam on the illegals as they radio the Border Patrol for help, and with Mace, in the unlikely event one of the intruders attacks them.

"I don't think the president is going to do a damn thing about Yuma," said Sharrar, 51, part owner of an auto-transmission shop. He launched the Yuma Patriots a year ago with his business partner after some illegals carjacked his 21-year-old son's Ford Explorer at gunpoint. The thieves also stole a cell phone and $700 in combat pay--Sharrar's son had just returned from serving as a soldier in Iraq.