While President Bush is likely to mention immigration in his inaugural speech today, observers say that even if he doesn’t, it is increasingly clear he is determined to reform the nation’s broken system.

“I think there’s little question, if any, that he is serious about reform,” said a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and expert on immigration, Tamar Jacoby, who added that his success may be less certain than his intent. “There remains questions about whether he can pull it off within this climate. It’s definitely a daunting project,” she said.

In a round of pre-inauguration speeches, Mr. Bush repeatedly stated his commitment to introducing a temporary worker program that could provide a route to legalization for immigrants.

“Look, whether or not you agree with the solution or not, we have a problem in America when you’ve got 8 million undocumented workers here,” Mr. Bush told the Washington Times last week. “I believe the president has got to set big agenda items and solve big problems.”

Inaugural speeches tend to deal more with concepts than specific programs, so Mr. Bush is more likely to address the specifics of his immigration program during his State of the Union Address on February 2.

“I think, yes, he’s serious and, yes, he’ll mention it in the State of the Union,” said a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, Deborah Meyers. “The president is very serious about immigration reform, and had it not been for September 11, we might have seen immigration reform, because that’s one of the issues he came into the White House talking about.”

In Mr. Bush’s first inaugural speech, he touched on the importance of immigrants to the nation, without any specific plans to reform the system.

“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens,” Mr. Bush said. “And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.”

Just as Mr. Bush made immigration reform a priority shortly after taking office in 2001, he is again making it a priority for his second term.

A senior policy analyst at the National Immigration Law Center, Josh Bernstein, said Mr. Bush’s commitment to pushing the temporary-worker proposal through Congress has become more evident in recent months. Mr. Bernstein cited a meeting between Mexican officials and Mr. Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Ridge, and Secretary of State Powell, in which they indicated their intent to follow through with the temporary-worker program.

Still, the president will have to overcome conservative opponents who equate the plan with rewarding illegal immigration, and immigration advocates who do not believe it provides enough assistance to those already here illegally. Additionally, immigration will have to compete with other issues such as the war in Iraq and Social Security reform for a place on the agenda.

Conservative opponents of Mr. Bush’s plan will soon bring the debate to Congress, where immigration provisions taken out of the September 11 legislation will be introduced next month.