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 News from Around the Americas | September 2005 
Bush Immigration Plan Loses Republican Support on U.S. Border
 Bloomberg
| | President Bush tries to quiet the crowd at a meeting on Medicare at a retirement community in El Mirage, Ariz. (Photo: Jeff Mitchell/Reuters) |
John Lanning pulled his Ford Bronco over to the side of the highway and walked into the desert scrub, about three miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Behind a thicket of high bushes he pointed to a spot where, two days earlier, he found 32 undocumented immigrants waiting for rides from smugglers.
"You can see the Border Patrol station from here," said Lanning, a Christmas tree farmer, pointing a few hundred yards away toward the town of Columbus, in southwest New Mexico. "They've been moving thousands of people through here."
Local anger over the U.S. government's inability to stem the flow of immigrants across the long southwestern border last month led the governors of New Mexico and Arizona to declare states of emergency. The situation at the border has reshaped the debate on immigration in faraway Washington, where security concerns are overshadowing President George W. Bush's proposal to create a new guest-worker program.
"What the public wants, and what Congress will focus on, is getting control of our border," said Tamar Jacoby, an analyst at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York, which favors Bush's plan.
While the president has declared his proposal a priority for his second term, many Republican lawmakers, citing terrorism and other security concerns, say any immigration legislation must emphasize tighter border controls above all else.
The outcome of the debate holds high stakes for companies and industries that face labor shortages, such as restaurants, hotels, hospitals, retail stores and landscaping businesses. They favor guest-worker programs and are concerned about the possibility of legislation that would only strengthen enforcement.
Rio Grande
The U.S.-Mexico border is relatively well guarded near cities such as El Paso, Texas. The border there follows the Rio Grande River and is lined with chain-link fences, infrared cameras and Border Patrol agents in idling sport utility vehicles about every quarter-mile.
Even outside of town, agents make passes along border roads about every 30 minutes and there are sensors buried in the desert floor that detect vibrations caused by footsteps and vehicles.
Rudy Karisch, the agent in charge of the Santa Teresa station outside of El Paso, said the Border Patrol is in a constant "arms race" with smugglers and others attempting illegal crossings.
"These people are extraordinarily resourceful," he said on a recent night while driving down a border road looking for tracks. "They'll always think of something."
Barbed-Wire Fence
Further west, near Columbus and elsewhere along the 700-mile stretch that separates Mexico from New Mexico and Arizona, equipment and personnel thin out; in some places border security is just a four-foot-high barbed-wire fence that is frequently broken and breached.
"That's driving the traffic out into these untended expanses," said Representative Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican. "We have literally hundreds of miles and no ways to keep an eye on it."
Outside of Columbus, which has a population of less than 2,000, the barbed-wire fence on the border has been pulled apart in some places to allow people to squeeze through or cut to let cars pass. A few hundred feet north of the border east of town a minivan with Mexican license plates lies stuck in the mud, surrounded by the tracks of cars that made it to a nearby highway.
A 30-Mile Trek
Undocumented immigrants who walk across the border and want to avoid Columbus face treks as long as 30 miles to Interstate 10, the main highway across southern New Mexico, to find a ride or a payphone. Along the way they litter the desert with empty water bottles, cans of food, clothing and backpacks.
The New Mexico and Arizona governors, Democrats Bill Richardson and Janet Napolitano, cited lax security in their states' remote deserts when they declared the states of emergency. The declarations make state money available to border counties for security measures such as more patrols and fences. Earlier this year a private group called the "Minutemen" patrolled sections of the border in an effort to deter illegal immigration. They plan an expanded patrol in October.
Congress earlier this year passed legislation that funds the hiring of an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents, far more than the 200 requested by Bush in his budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
An Obligation
Bush, in an appearance in Arizona on Aug. 29, said the federal government has "an obligation to enforce the borders," and promised more resources to border states dealing with illegal immigrants.
"There's no question that the federal government is failing to do the job," said Jim Turner, a former Democratic congressman from Texas who served on the House Homeland Security Committee. "It's going to take some courageous leadership to deal realistically with the scope of the problem."
One measure pending in the Senate would almost double the number of Border Patrol agents to 21,000 from about 11,000, and spend $1 billion a year over five years for border security technology and facilities.
Returning Home
The legislation, sponsored by Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, also creates a guest-worker program that requires undocumented immigrants to return home before applying to work in the U.S. legally.
A second measure, backed by Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, would let undocumented immigrants work legally in the country after paying a fine.
Republicans in the House have been wary of the Senate measures, saying they are too easy on illegal immigration and do not include enough enforcement measures. Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, has proposed legislation requiring the Department of Homeland Security to increase border security before any new worker visas are issued.
"Congressmen are increasingly uneasy about being seen as soft on immigration control," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors less immigration. "I would bet that we end up with an enforcement-only bill and no guest-worker program."
The Bus to Las Chepas
On the border about 15 miles west of Columbus is the tiny Mexican town of Las Chepas, a main staging point for immigrant smuggling in the area. Richardson has asked the Mexican government to bulldoze the entire town to stem the flood of illegal aliens.
Three or four times a day dilapidated school buses, filled with people, drive to the town, where the immigrants wait for dark so they can attempt a crossing.
Leaning against the metal posts that mark the border, Lanning, the tree farmer, watched one of the buses roll by last week and said almost everyone aboard except the driver will try to enter the U.S.
"They'll be crossing," he said, as the bus rattled by kicking up a cloud of dust. "This evening 500 people will make it to the interstate."
njohnston3@bloomberg.net. |
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