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 Editorials | October 2006 
The Mexican Border Fence Hoax
 Vincent Gioia - chronwatch.com
| | "The claim of border protection beginning with the appropriation of over one billion dollars allegedly for that purpose is just a big hoax." |
Many of us have insisted that Congress address border protection before dealing with illegal aliens in our midst. House Republicans have been particularly vocal and responsive about the need to first protect our borders and they passed a bill to do just that. The Senate, on the other hand, had no such intention and the Senate bill on illegal immigration was a total capitulation to illegal immigrants that even proposed amnesty for law-breakers.
The House and Senate took up appropriation bills for Homeland Security in committee "to resolve the differences" and both the House and Senate approved a "compromise" appropriation bill with an apparent $1.2 billion for a "border fence" which was sent to the White House. With great fanfare, the president signed the bill and border protection advocates were told that the border fence financed by the appropriation bill would protect our Mexican border.
Now, having mollified conservative critics with "border protection first," Congress and the president consider themselves free to deal with illegal immigration as they wanted to in the first place without opposition by those who want to protect our borders before addressing the problem of illegal immigration. Unfortunately, the claim of border protection beginning with the appropriation of over one billion dollars allegedly for that purpose is just a big hoax. The public scam is even worse than described; the law funding the "border fence" provides a five-year term for completion, not the 18 months that Homeland Security officials are mandated to gain “operational control” of the border.
Quickly following congressional funding authorization to construct 700 miles of Mexican border fence, and just before recessing, Congress enacted additional legislation to enable the president to thwart the will of most Americans who want to protect our Mexican border against illegal immigration. This additional legislation gives the president the ability to allocate the $1.2 billion of the appropriation bill to various projects other than erection of a border fence; for example, in lieu of a fence the money may be spent on “tactical infrastructure,” that is, technology to support the Department of Homeland Security’s desire to develop a “virtual fence” instead of an actual physical barrier.
If that wasn’t bad enough, leaders of Congress gave a written pledge that members of Congress, governors, and local leaders, as well as Native American tribes and the Homeland Security Secretary, would be involved with decisions regarding “the exact placement” of any structure. Furthermore, Secretary Michael Chertoff was given flexibility to use alternatives “when fencing is ineffective or impractical”. Incredibly, Congress also withheld $950 million of the $1.2 billion pending a report of a breakdown of how the money will be spent by Homeland Security, i.e. Chertoff; the report is due in December after the November elections. It is also wise to remember that Bush and Chertoff have stated publicly enforcement alone would not work and both want to have guest worker programs and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, and presumably the millions more that will come with such an inducement.
Although the president and others may believe that protecting the border does not solve the illegal immigrant problem, the public believes it is necessary to address border protection before anything else is done about the illegal immigrants already here and the guest worker needs. It does not make sense to work out a system for illegal immigrants without first closing the border; otherwise we will be continually dealing with illegal immigration and will likely encourage more illegal immigrants from Mexico who will seek to take advantage of whatever benefits and privileges given to those already here by a foolish Congress and administration.
The only reason the Senate version of the illegal immigration bill was held up by the House was because of a public outcry against it. The House had it right originally before caving in to the Mexican immigrant lobby. We can only obtain real Mexican border protection if we make the same effort as was done to fight the Senate bill. When Congress comes back after the recess there will be a big effort to pass an illegal-immigrant-friendly law for guest workers and amnesty. Only we can stop that by urging our congressional representatives to resist the Senate and insist they pass real border protection again before taking up illegal immigration. If that cannot be done now, this may be a case that no bill is better than a bad illegal immigration law we will be stuck with forever. Perhaps we can have border protection another time when we have a Congress, Senate and president that really want to protect us.
About the Writer: Vincent Gioia is a retired patent attorney with an active interest in politics and current events. He writes about issues that he believes have been misrepresented by the liberal media. He may be contacted at gioia@gte.net. |
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