It’s being reported that President Bush will deliver a speech tonight in which he calls for the deployment of the National Guard along the southern U.S. border:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush had decided to propose the use of thousands of troops to support the Border Patrol while it builds up its resources to more effectively secure the 2,000-mile line between the U.S. and Mexico.

Snow said the effort would use “a very small percentage of the Guard,” which numbers about 400,000 members around the country. White House officials say it would involve fewer than 8,000 Guardsmen.

In a signal of the high stakes on the issue, Bush arranged to make the announcement at 8 p.m. EDT, in a rare prime-time speech from the Oval Office. He planned to follow up with a visit Thursday to the border, in Yuma, Ariz., to further press his case.

As long-time readers of Virtue Magazine probably know, I have not exactly been the most ardent supporter of the Bush administration—for very good reasons. This news report is a welcome change, however, and if this signals a shift in our president’s previously deplorable position on illegal immigration, I will be the first to praise him for it. Bush’s speech tonight will be especially commendable if it does not call for what Democratic leader Harry Reid calls for:

“He must publicly denounce” a House-passed bill that makes all illegal immigrants subject to prosecution as felons and calls for construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border, Reid said on the Senate floor.

Bush’s speech will air at 8 p.m. eastern time tonight, and it sounds like a speech definitely worth listening in on.