Border fence will be built
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... fence.html
Border 'fence will be built'
By Chet Barfield
STAFF WRITER
October 7, 2006
OTAY MESA – On a windy bluff overlooking Tijuana, Rep. Duncan Hunter yesterday rejected suggestions that high-tech security measures might replace some segments of a 700-mile border fence project newly enacted by Congress.
JOHN R. McCUTCHEN / Union-Tribune
"It's fine if . . . Homeland Security defines where that 700 miles is built, but it must be 700 miles," Rep. Duncan Hunter told the media yesterday. The House and Senate gave the Bush administration leeway in distributing the fence money.
“The fence will be built,” the Alpine Republican told reporters at a border news conference. “This is not a recommendation. It's a mandate by Congress.”
Hunter was a co-sponsor of the so-called Secure Fence Act, which the House and Senate passed last week and President Bush signed Wednesday. The legislation requires double-layered fencing, similar to that erected in the late 1990s along San Diego County's border with Tijuana, to be installed along huge swaths of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
But congressional and White House officials have said the Department of Homeland Security would have the flexibility of using ground-based radar, cameras and sensors in some areas where fencing might be impractical or ineffective.
Hunter bristled at those notions, saying Congress intended no such wiggle-room.
“These people in the bureaucracy need to reminded that this is a mandate,” he said. “It's fine if the secretary of Homeland Security defines where that 700 miles is built, but it must be 700 miles.”
He gave reporters a copy of a letter he sent to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff yesterday “to clarify the intention of the legislation.”
Hunter acknowledged that Arizona's Tohono O'odham tribe strongly objected to walling off the entire 75 miles of border on its reservation, and said Chertoff would have discretion to leave limited areas unfenced as long as major smuggling routes were secured.
Gesturing toward a nearby gully that was a primary route for illegal immigration from Mexico before 14 miles of double-fencing began being installed a decade ago, Hunter said the high metal barrier has been effective in sealing the border along San Diego.
“Where we're standing right now, before they built the fence, this was a no-man's land,” he said. “We've cut smuggling down more than 95 percent in this area.
But critics say fence construction has not decreased the amount of smuggling, but moved it to more remote and dangerous areas.
Hunter disagreed with critics in the United States and Mexico who say fencing off the border is bad for diplomacy.
“We're just doing what's right for the American people and for border security,” he said.
Shortly before recessing late yesterday, the House and Senate gave the administration leeway to distribute the $1.2 billion allocated for the fence on a combination of projects, including roads and technology. It is estimated the fence will cost about $3 million to $10 million per mile.
Re: Border fence will be built
Quote:
Hunter bristled at those notions, saying Congress intended no such wiggle-room.
“These people in the bureaucracy need to reminded that this is a mandate,” he said. “It's fine if the secretary of Homeland Security defines where that 700 miles is built, but it must be 700 miles.”
He gave reporters a copy of a letter he sent to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff yesterday “to clarify the intention of the legislation.”
Representative Hunter, you're going to need a whole lot more than letters to direct this Administration. If you want our fence to be built, then you will have to Impeach Bush and Cheney and make Dennis Hastert President of the United States.
That's just a simple fact that everyone in the Republican Party and the US Congress needs to face and accept. See, Bush is a Traitor and everyone who works for him...is a Traitor. They haven't enforced one of your US Immigration Laws for 6 years and trust me when I say, they 'aint startin' now.
:(