ODESSA, Texas (AP) - Karl Rove, President Bush's former deputy chief of staff, said Thursday the government will need to reduce the pressures on the border with a temporary worker program in order to be successful with immigration reform.

Rove said the details haven't been explained to the American public well.

He said the U.S. Border Patrol will need to be doubled and the budget tripled with 300 miles of fence built.

Rove said that before Bush took office only about 8 percent of immigrants given a notice to appear at hearings did so while the other 92 percent went on with their lives. He said many immigrants who come to the United States don't have current ties to their own countries.

"We've got to break that cycle," Rove said.

Rove spoke to a crowd of about 1,500 people as part of the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute's Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Rove also said the best thing about working in the White House was the people he had an opportunity to work with.

About the 2008 presidential race, Rove said he favored the Republican nominee but said Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton could have a chance of winning because she has "a machine around her."

Four art students quietly protested before Rove's speech, the Odessa American reported.

"I'm just here to let people in Odessa know this is not a totally conservative area," sophomore Lori Head said. "There are people in Odessa who are individuals and we have our own original thoughts."