ASHINGTON - Continuing his courtship of Hispanic voters, George W. Bush yesterday called for splitting the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies and allowing immigrants awaiting visas to visit their families in the United States.
In a speech here to the 71st annual convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization, Bush lashed out at the INS, saying the agency was unfriendly, excessively bureaucratic, and badly in need of restructuring.
''The INS needs reform and that's exactly what I'm going to do should I become the president,'' Bush told a luncheon crowd of more than 600 people.
The Texas governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he supports legislation that would divide the INS into two agencies: one focused on protecting the nation's borders ''in a humane way'' and the other aimed at providing more customer-friendly service. The legislation is sponsored by Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas.
''It's too paperwork-oriented,'' Bush said of the INS. ''It is an agency that sends mixed signals to people we are trying to help.''
He added, ''We ought to be saying loud and clear to people that the INS is to help families, to help people understand the major rules and regulations.''
Bush said it was ''not right'' that a legal resident's immediate family member who applies to immigrate is ineligible for even a tourist visa while the application is being processed.
As a nation that embraces family values, he said, ''we need to help husbands and wives and children of permanent residents be allowed to visit while the INS is handling their paperwork,'' he said. ''As I've said, family values should not stop at the Rio Grande River.''
The 15-minute speech, which an aide said he wrote himself on the plane to Washington, won Bush warm, if not enthusiastic, applause. And just as Vice President Al Gore does when appearing before Latino audiences, Bush sprinkled Spanish words and phrases into his remarks. Gore is scheduled to address the league on Friday.
The appearances by both men are part of a broader outreach effort to Hispanics, the nation's fastest growing ethnic group and a sizable chunk of the voters in Texas, California, Florida, and New York, four states that contain more than half of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
Both men are scheduled to address the annual conference of another influential Latino group, the National Council of La Raza, in San Diego next week.
Jose Barron, a 48-year-old prison warden from Lompoc, Calif., who is attending the league's weeklong convention, said he would vote for Bush.
''He's right in line with what the country needs,'' Barron said.
But Bush's speech and INS proposal weren't enough to win over Teri Martinez, a teacher from Tucson who is a Democrat. ''It's like he's talking off the top of his head. All I hear is rhetoric. Everything he says is extremely ambiguous. I think he should have been briefed better because everything was too general.''
In Bush's first race for governor of Texas in 1994, he received 28 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to exit polls. Four years later, when he ran for reelection, exit polls suggested he got almost half of the Hispanic vote.
Even so, Bush has his work cut out for him in seeking to topple Gore for the affection of Hispanic voters. A recent Voter.com-Battleground poll found Gore favored by 53 of Hispanic voters nationally compared to 41 percent for Bush.
Bush began his speech by saluting federal workers who had just been honored by the league during a recognition ceremony.
''I want to say to the federal workers here, thank you for your service,'' Bush said. ''I appreciate what you do for the United States. I'm trying to find federal work myself.''
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
