Thread: Bill to secure U.S. border seen as election-year ploy

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Bill to secure U.S. border seen as election-year ploy
Bush gets it weeks after its passage
BY MIKE MADDEN
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

October 24, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A bill to build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border is poised to become law just in time for next month's elections.

Weeks after the bill passed the House and Senate, Republican leaders sent it to the White House on Monday. President George W. Bush must sign it within 10 days or it will be automatically vetoed and sent back to Congress.

The delay will let Republicans talk about border security and illegal immigration in the last days of campaign season, as the GOP tries to hold on to slim majorities in the House and Senate.

By not sending the proposal to Bush immediately after it passed, Republicans got the chance to try to build a second wave of publicity around it.

"The American people demand a secure border," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said in a joint statement Monday.

"Unfortunately, the House and Senate Democrat leaders voted against the Secure Fence Act. The Democrat immigration plan would fail the American people, allow dangerous criminals into our country and would set our homeland security back to pre-9/11 levels."

When Congress took the measure up late last month, Democratic leaders called the bill a political stunt. Still, 64 House Democrats and 26 Senate Democrats voted for it.

Value of the fence unclear

Whether the fence will help stop undocumented immigrants is unclear. Congress has paid for only about 150 miles of fencing in separate legislation Bush has already signed. The fence can also be replaced by cameras and sensors if the Department of Homeland Security decides that makes more sense.

Building the entire fence could cost more than $6 billion, lawmakers' estimate.

"The whole Secure Fence Act was an election-year gimmick," said Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research at the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino civil rights group in the country. "It's an attempt to look tough without really doing anything."

Sides don't agree on policy

The House and Senate were unable to agree on broader changes to immigration policy or border security, even though both chambers passed their own bills.

The Border Trade Alliance, a group based in Phoenix that represents businesses in the United States and Mexico, opposed the bill. The Mexican government protested it, too.

"All they're doing is finally sending a bill they've been sitting on for a couple weeks," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "It highlights their willingness to pay lip service to the need to protect our borders without doing anything to do so."

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

and lower gas prices are also a ploy.

Just watch, after the elections they will go up again proving once again that the oil companies CAN keep the prices down when it serves THEIR purpose!

Opps wrong topic

added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1622

At twice the 6 Billion it's still a bargain. We'll get it back from honest & legal taxpayers who leave the money in the USA, & not send it to mexico.