Washington ? “Border security first” became the House Republican slogan Thursday as GOP leaders sought to resurrect stalled immigration reform legislation before the November elections, approving a 700-mile fence along America’s boundary with Mexico for a second time.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., announced that the GOP-led House would try to pass a series of bills strengthening border security by the end of September and seek to persuade the Senate to go along by including the package in a spending bill for the Homeland Security Department.

But the package would not include President Bush’s guest-worker program, a proposal that the Senate modified and included in the immigration bill it approved earlier this year. Hastert said the guest-worker program should only be considered when the borders have been secured.

Democrats protested that the Republicans’ move was a political ploy designed to help them in districts where illegal immigration is a hot issue in the midterm elections and that there was little or no chance that the Senate would go along.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he doubted the House strategy would succeed without a guest-worker program.

“I don’t think so, and that’s a curbstone opinion,” he said.

Lugar said tough border security measures might help the GOP in some districts, but not necessarily in others. Border security has already tightened to the point that some employers in the western U.S. quietly have complained that they might not have enough workers, he said. In those districts, GOP candidates might not benefit as much by pushing for more security, he said.

The House approved the fence measure by a 283-138 vote.