WASHINGTON(AP) President Bush, bracing for more street protests and a Senate showdown on immigration reform, called Saturday for legislation that does not force America to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful one.

"America is a nation of immigrants, and we're also a nation of laws," Bush said in his weekly radio address about the emotional immigration issue that has driven a wedge in his party.

Bush sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time. Others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, say national security concerns should drive immigration reform.

On Monday, Bush is to attend a naturalization ceremony in Washington where he will watch a group of new citizens raise their right hands and swear to uphold the laws of the United States. Later in the week, immigration likely will surface as a topic in Cancun, Mexico, where Bush is scheduled to meet with Mexico's President Vicente Fox.

Congress is considering bills that would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The proposals have angered many Hispanics, a key voting bloc both parties are courting.

Some Democrats, such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, say Republican proposals like Frist's are unsympathetic to immigrants.

Whatever happened to:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me

That's all well and good, but when your tempest-tost hate us and want to kill us it is wise to be a bit more cautious who we welcome with open arms.

One thing that allways confused me with regards to immigration and visas etc, is people from say, the middle east, can apply for visas and immigrate to the USA.....yet.....people from the UK...supposedly the USA's greatest ally, can not.

Who would you rather be living next to? someone from the middle east? or someone from Britain or Canada?

Not saying all people from the middle east plan to bomb america, heh, just seems abit odd.

Building fences along the mexico-us border seems a bit extreme to me. I live in Texas, and I know that the illegal hispanic population here does a LOT of the jobs that no one else would want to do. Even the ones with work visas get stuck being busboys for minimum wage.