Thread: What happened to the FENCE

• 
• CLICK PICTURE FOR VIDEO
• AMID PRESIDENT OBAMA'S $3.7 BILLION emergency funding request to address the immigration crisis are questions about why it didn't include more money to secure the border — and a renewed call for enforcement of The Secure Fence Act.

• FOX NEWS FIRST: Obama kills time amid border crisis

• Concerns over strain illegal immigrant kids are placing on US bases | HHS: Reporters Can't Ask Questions

• Obama slammed for missing border mess | Southern border immigration crisis comes to tiny Michigan town

Return of the Fence: Immigration crisis spurs renewed calls for border barrier

Published July 09, 2014 FoxNews.com




The surge of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children from Central America into Texas has revived calls for a border security measure long mocked by Democrats but touted by Republicans as a commonsense solution: A big, long fence.

Those calls became even louder after President Obama submitted a $3.7 billion emergency funding request to address the immigration crisis that did not include much in the way of border security. The package was focused mostly on covering detention and transportation costs, deportations, health care and immigration judges and lawyers.

"If we want to solve this problem, we need to secure the southern border," Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., told Fox News.

Bridenstine is pushing for the enforcement of The Secure Fence Act of 2006.

The law, signed by then-President George W. Bush, authorized hundreds of miles of fence construction along the southern border, in addition to more checkpoints, cameras, vehicle barriers and lighting to catch people.

His office cites findings that the U.S. only has "operational control" over 44 percent of the southern border, and notes the law requires 100 percent control. To achieve that, he wants the National Guard deployed to augment the Border Patrol and construction completed on 700 miles of double-layer fence.

The federal government built one section of the fence, near San Diego, starting back in the 1990s, which is double- and, in spots, triple-layered. Advocates of a massive, reinforced fence point to the San Diego stretch as a model.

Since the 2006 law was signed, the Department of Homeland Security has installed hundreds of miles of additional fencing -- as of January 2013, the department reported installing 299 miles of vehicle fencing and 352 miles of pedestrian fencing. Most of that, however, is not double-layered.

In a July 5 op-ed in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said less than 40 miles of fencing along the border is double-layered, and while single-layer pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers elsewhere "might be better than nothing," more should be done.

"Fencing and infrastructure alone are by no means enough to stop illegal crossings, but the presence of physical impediments at the border, when supported by manpower and technology, create barriers that make entry increasingly more difficult and sometimes impossible," he wrote.

"Either the mandates of the Secure Fence Act should be reinstated, which I have proposed, or the Obama administration should utilize existing authority to finish the job that the Bush Administration halfheartedly started."

Critics of the fence plan question its effectiveness and say it's simply too costly. The Washington Office on Latin America says fully carrying out the 2006 law would cost over $4.1 billion -- which is more than Obama's entire emergency request.

The issue has proved fodder for Democrats who have mocked the idea as over the top.

Obama, defending his own border security measures, said in 2011 that Republicans were trying to "move the goalposts" on what level of border security they want.

"They said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Now they're gonna say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol, or they'll want a higher fence -- maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat."

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, seemingly jokingly, supported that idea a few weeks later, calling in addition for an electrified barbed wire fence.

Fox News analyst and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer countered the fence plan criticism.

"If fences don't work, why is there one around the White House?" he said on Fox News last week. "If they don't work, why is it that the Israeli fence which separates Israel from the West Bank has cut down terror attacks within Israel by 99 percent. Fences work."

But even if the fence is a political long shot, the issue of border security is getting more attention after it was conspicuously left out of the $3.7 billion request.

"Where's the beef? Where is the money for border security? This does nothing to secure the border," National Border Patrol Council Vice President Shawn Moran told Fox News.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that the request "principally focuses on these immigration court resources -- judges, lawyers, prosecutors, asylum officials -- who can make sure that these cases are processed more efficiently. "

He said the administration wants to make sure they have the resources to process cases more quickly and, where possible, return people to their home countries. As for border security, he said an immigration reform bill that would address that is being "blocked by Republicans in the House."

"So those who claim that they are against comprehensive immigration reform, but yet are committed to criticizing the president for his lack of effort to secure the border, are open to have their motives questioned," Earnest said.

The president's request does include $39 million for increased air surveillance along the border, as well as money for a Border Enforcement Security Task Force program and for Border Patrol overtime costs. But the largest chunk -- $1.8 billion -- is for the Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with caring for the unaccompanied children under federal law.

Senate Democratic leaders are pushing for Congress to approve the measure, but the House would have to go first and it's unclear for now whether House Speaker John Boehner has the votes.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...order-barrier/

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that the request "principally focuses on these immigration court resources -- judges, lawyers, prosecutors, asylum officials -- who can make sure that these cases are processed more efficiently. "

He said the administration wants to make sure they have the resources to process cases more quickly and, where possible, return people to their home countries. As for border security, he said an immigration reform bill that would address that is being "blocked by Republicans in the House."

"So those who claim that they are against comprehensive immigration reform, but yet are committed to criticizing the president for his lack of effort to secure the border, are open to have their motives questioned," Earnest said.

Once again, taxpaying Americans are expected to foot the bill for the legal, medical, educational, and 'resettlement' expense for illegal aliens that SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO ENTER since we paid for a FENCE years ago. And if we don't agree, WE are the bad guys. Right.

There is going to be NO fence. That is the NWO agenda and both parties are united in this effort. The question is, are WE going to take the same route as the American Indians or will we stand up and fight. They want to eliminate the American race, just like they did the Indians. WAKE UP PEOPLE. If you study the American Indian history, you will see that is just how they did it. Most of us that were born here have Indian blood, because after they killed off all the males the children were raised by the new arrivals and eventually married their offspring. We really are watching history repeat itself.

2/6/08

CA. http://www.alipac.us/f12/congressman...r-fence-96178/

This is the fence in San Diego.



In this Nov. 17, 2008 file photo, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle stands guard along the border fence with its concertino wire topping it, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)
/ AP
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...order-fencing/


CA. Congressman Duncan Hunter demands feds install border fence
February 7, 2008


CA. http://www.alipac.us/f12/congressman...r-fence-96178/

This is why there is no fence in Texas.


http://www.alipac.us/f12/tx-tpwd-rej...uction-118851/


http://www.alipac.us/f12/tx-governme...native-121481/


http://www.alipac.us/f12/tx-supreme-...-fence-150842/

. . . The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2006.

The government of Mexico and ministers of several Latin American countries have condemned the plans. Rick Perry, governor of Texas, also expressed his opposition saying that instead of closing the border it should be opened more and through technology support legal and safe migration. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico%...States_barrier

http://www.globalsecurity.org/securi...exico-wall.htm

So, the less than handful of border states get to dictate what happens in the other 46 states because not every border state governor wants a fence to keep out illegals that all 50 states have to support once they are here.