Thread: Secure Fence Act goes to House floor Thursday

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ho ... 274286.php

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Secure Fence Act goes to House floor Thursday
The bill would authorize more than 700 miles of fencing along the southwest border, including sections in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
By DENA BUNIS
The Orange County Register
WASHINGTON – House GOP leaders today began making good on their promise to bring border security measures to the floor before lawmakers adjourn later this month.

They announced that the Secure Fence Act, authored by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the Homeland Security committee, will go to the House floor Thursday as part of a series of enforcement bills.

King's bill would authorize more than 700 miles of fencing along the nation's southwestern border, including sections in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The measure would also require the Department of Homeland Security to "achieve operational control" over the entire border with Mexico through such technology as unmanned aerial vehicles and increased surveillance.

The bill also requires Homeland Security to assess whether fencing or other barriers is needed on the northern U.S. border.

Much of what is included in King's bill was part of the House-passed enforcement-only measure passed last December. House leaders have determined that they want to pass some security measures before the November elections. They oppose, however, considering any of the guest worker or legalization plans included in the Senate-passed comprehensive bill, provisions supported by most Democrats, President Bush and some GOP members and senators.

"House Republicans believe we must address the immediate need to secure our borders,'' King said in announcing that the bill will be debated on the floor Thursday. Majority Leader John Boehner said that Thursday's vote "represents the first step" in the process of authorizing and funding key border security priorities.

House leaders are meeting later today to decide what other security measures will be brought up before the election.

Democrats are unlikely to oppose many of the measures the GOP will bring up although they continue to push for a more comprehensive approach.

"While we all support more resources for border security, it is abundantly clear that these stopgap measures are designed to provide cover for their failure to produce comprehensive reform,'' Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement in response to the House GOP's call for border measures only.

Majority Leader Bill Frist, who voted for the Senate's comprehensive bill, has said he supports border security measures. A spokeswoman for Frist said today that he would be looking at all the available options if and when the House sends such measures to the Senate.

Lawmakers have not ruled out returning to the immigration issue in a more comprehensive way in the lame-duck session planned for after the November elections.

This is certainly good news, but I will believe it when I see the fence actually being built.
I know we will all be watching to see what happens after the elections. I have a sneaky feeling Congress will try to pass a lame duck bill with some sort of amnesty in it after the election pressure is off.
The game ain't over yet!

I have a sneaky feeling Congress will try to pass a lame duck bill with some sort of amnesty in it after the election pressure is off.
The game ain't over yet!

I agree - I don't trust them. We need to stay vigilant about calling, writing our lawmakers. If they tried to do such a thing, it would make a real mockery of the 22 House hearings this summer that focused on all of the ways that any kind of amnesty would damage this country and its citizens. After all the money and time that was spent pointing up how awful S.2611 would be if passed! This said, I would not put it past them.

I hope they build the fence and give no amnesty. It is not fair to others who are here legally and can only keep renewing work visas but cannot get permanent residency.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... -headlines

House Republicans Unveil Secure Fence Act
By Nicole Gaouette
Times Staff Writer

2:20 PM PDT, September 13, 2006

WASHINGTON — House Republicans launched a bid to stiffen border security today, announcing that they will vote tomorrow on a bill to build 700 miles of fencing in highly populated areas along the U.S. border with Mexico.

The newly unveiled bill, called the Secure Fence Act, would require the Department of Homeland Security to gain "operational control" of the entire border through cameras, ground sensors and unmanned aerial drones. It would also give Border Patrol agents all necessary authority to "disable" fleeing vehicles.

Almost all of these provisions were included in the wide-ranging immigration enforcement bill the House passed last year. But the repackaged Secure Fence Act comes after weeks of congressional deadlock over how best to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. House leaders promised that the bill is only the first of several border security initiatives that they will introduce in the weeks leading up to the November elections.

"Over the next three weeks, House Republicans will work with our colleagues in the Senate to authorize and fund key border security priorities and send them to President Bush for his signature," said House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a statement. "Tomorrow's vote represents the first step in that process."

The House passed a wide-ranging bill last year that covered enforcement at the border, the workplace and inside the country that made illegal presence a felony and toughened laws applying to legal immigrants. That bill triggered massive street marches this year.

By introducing a stand-alone fence bill, House Republicans are not just trying to curtail protests and woo voters. They are also trying to build momentum behind their enforcement-first approach to overhauling the immigration system, an approach rejected by the Senate and Bush.

House lawmakers spent the summer holding immigration field hearings across the country to tout their enforcement-first model. The hearings did not include public participation and the witness lists leaned heavily toward experts who reflect the enforcement-only view. On Tuesday, House leaders held an unusual hearing in which Republican chairmen recommended ideas for legislation based on what they said they had learned from the hearings. The new fence bill is the first fruit of that effort.

It would require at least two layers of reinforced fencing, along with vehicle barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors, around Tecate, Calif. and Calexico, Calif. and around towns in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Surveillance cameras in those areas would have to be in place by May 30, 2007, while fence construction would have to be completed a year later.

The bill also calls for a study on construction of a state-of-the-art barrier system along the northern border with Canada. These appear in the border security bill passed by the House last year. The one new section would give Customs and Border Patrol agents working on the ground and in the air division greater authority to stop smugglers' cars entering the U.S. illegally or fleeing from authorities.

Now, the most agents can do is lay down spike strips to puncture the tires of fleeing vehicles. The new House bill would require Customs and Border Protection to consider other technologies, including rubber bullets, to stop smugglers who are fleeing the authorities or posing a threat to the community, a Republican aide said.

The House border security initiative presents a challenge for senators who back the bill their chamber passed in May. That legislation would allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status, create a guest worker program and would include enforcement measures similar to those in a bill the House passed last year.

If the House bill passes Thursday, the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers who backed the Senate legislation would have to decide whether to vote for it. They risk losing any leverage they have to push the House to approve measures such as a guest worker program. If they vote against the House bill, they also face being tarred as weak on security.

Senate Democrats responded swiftly to the House announcement.

"We believe in comprehensive immigration reform. That's what this country needs," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "We believe there should be a program to bring 12 million people out of the shadows.

"It's so transparent," Reid said, adding that he hoped Latino voters would see through the Republican gambit and help Democrats on election day. "Doesn't the president have enough swagger to tell" House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) "not to do this?"

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who met with Reid today, said he was disappointed in the House proposal. "I think a bill that only addresses security and does in the punitive way that the House does is absolutely unacceptable. ... It's un-American."
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nicole.gaouette@latimes.com

Times staff writer Noam Levey contributed to this report

I see nothing wrong with border enforcement first. Obviously the House and Senate are at extreme odds over so-called comprehensive reform so why not pass this bill? It is a beginning. The Senate is a nightmare!

House Republicans launched a bid to stiffen border security today, announcing that they will vote tomorrow on a bill to build 700 miles of fencing in highly populated areas along the U.S. border with Mexico.

It's no coincidence that it's 700 miles, since that's the exact number used in the ammendment that Senator Sessions added to the Senate's bill. Since the Senate already passed that bill, with the 700 miles of fencing, there's no reason why this bill shouldn't pass both houses and be signed by the shrub.

Build the fence. I even picked the enforcemnent over immigration reform in the vote that the Congress Org had this week. It results are then passed on to the senators and the president. I hope they read it.