After President Bush's speech on immigration reform, I've read or heard a lot of different opinions on his call to send the National Guard to the border. One person said that the plan was "horribly over-expensive and very difficult."

It turns out that person is Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. He made the statement less than six months ago on the O'Reilly Factor, before the President informed him that, in fact, the plan was neither too expensive nor difficult.

From Congressional Quarterly:

"Why don't you put the National Guard on the border to back up the border patrol and stop the bleeding, and then start to increase the Border Patrol, the high-tech and all of that?" O'Reilly asked. . . .

"Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission," Chertoff told O'Reilly. "I mean, the fact of the matter is the border is a special place. There are special challenges that are faced there."

Chertoff added that that it would take a huge amount of National Guard troops, that they would need new training. But couldn't the National Guard pull it off, O'Reilly asked?

"I think it would be a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem," Chertoff said. "Unless you would be prepared to leave those people in the National Guard day and night for month after month after month, you would eventually have to come to grips with the challenge in a more comprehensive way."