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 News from Around the Americas | October 2006 
Bush Reaffirms Support for a Fence on the Mexican Border
 Dave Montgomery - McClatchy Newspapers
| | President Bush is saluted as he boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland., Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006 en route to St. Louis and Chicago Thursday. (AP/Charles Dharapak) |
President Bush said Wednesday that his administration is committed to building more than 700 miles of fencing along the Southwest border, dispelling questions about whether the barrier will actually be constructed.
Bush expressed strong support for the multi-state fence approved by Congress late last month as well as an accompanying "virtual wall" of high-tech gadgetry such as sensors, cameras, radar and unmanned surveillance aircraft.
"We're going to do both," Bush said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. "You can't fence the entire border. But . . . you can use a combination of fencing and technology to make it easier for the Border Patrol to enforce the border."
Legislation that cleared Congress on Sept. 29, just before the start of an election-season recess, would require reinforced fencing and barriers along porous sections of the border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
The proposed fence has ignited diplomatic protests from Mexico as well as vigorous opposition from many U.S. border communities, escalating speculation that it may never be built.
Congress has approved $1.2 billion for border fencing but the barrier envisioned by lawmakers is expected to cost at least $2.2 billion and possibly more than $6 billion. The Department of Homeland Security has also sent mixed signals about its commitment to building the fence.
In response to a reporter's question, however, Bush left little doubt that his administration intends to carry out the congressional mandate to build double-layered fencing - two parallel rows of fencing - and adjacent patrol roads in sections of the border with heavy concentrations of smuggling and illegal immigrant traffic.
The fencing, he said, would be erected in areas "where there is a high vulnerability for people being able to sneak in," he said. In remote, less-populous areas, he said, high-tech enforcement may prove to be the better approach.
"It's a combination of fencing and technologies," said the former Texas governor. "It's hard to enforce that border. You got some rugged country . . . stretches of territory where you don't even know where the border is."
He said fencing "makes sense" in high-density urban corridors such as Southern California, El Paso and sections of Arizona, where illegal immigrants often "rush across the border into a little subdivision," with all but a few eluding the Border Patrol.
The bill awaiting Bush's signature calls for five sections of fencing totaling more than 700 miles, but Senate and House leaders assured border state lawmakers that local communities would have a say in exactly where the barriers would be located.
While Bush said several weeks ago that he planned to sign the bill, he used Wednesday's press conference to again urge Congress to enact a comprehensive immigration plan that would include a guest worker program and legal protections for more than 11 million illegal immigrants now in the country.
Lawmakers shelved the guest worker plan and concentrated on passing border security measures such as the fence before leaving town to campaign for the Nov. 7 elections. Supporters of Bush's proposed comprehensive overhaul hope to resurrect the issue when lawmakers return for a brief post-election work session in November. |
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