The Department of Homeland Security announced a new plan to secure the nation's borders with Mexico and Canada, hinging its latest effort on a temporary worker program, more agents and more resources on the border.

The Secure Border Initiative was announced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in Houston. And in Washington, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales stressed the need for a temporary-worker program - something President Bush has been pushing for nearly two years.

The immigration and border enforcement initiative comes just days before President Bush is scheduled to attend the opening day of the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where he is expected to discuss trade and economic growth with a group of Latin American leaders.

The Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill approved last month provides funds to increase the number of agents on the border and increase the bed space for illegal entrants it captures. The money will allow the department to eliminate its policy of releasing detained border crossers with a promise to appear in court, a policy called "catch-and-release."

Last spring, the department promised the same kind of "operational control" along the border but by the end of the fiscal year, it became apparent that federal agents had dropped the number of illegal entrants moving through its Tucson Sector only to see them crossing through the surrounding Yuma and El Paso sectors.

Analysts say the Bush administration is under pressure to produce real results because it hasn't accomplished anything toward controlling the border.

Members of Arizona's congressional delegation were satisfied to see Chertoff's Secure Border Initiative, but in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., said such proposals have been seen before with little to show for them.

Unlike last year's Arizona Border Control Initiative, which placed reinforcements along the border but did little for interior enforcement, Chertoff's plan would add 250 criminal investigators and 400 new immigration agents to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael Jackson.

The department plans to add 1,000 Border Patrol agents and provides an 11 percent budget increase to $7 billion for Customs and Border Protection, Jackson said.

Detention bed space was also increased by 2,000 to about 20,000 beds for illegal entrants who are held in custody...