Napolitano: Fence alone will not stop illegal immigration

A fence along the U.S.-Mexico border cannot by itself solve the problems of illegal immigration, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano during a national television interview Tuesday.

July 9th, 2008 @ 7:46am
by CNN

A fence along the U.S.-Mexico border cannot by itself solve the problems of illegal immigration, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano during a national television interview Tuesday.

While the Department of Homeland Security says building a fence will keep illegal immigrants out of the country, Napolitano told CNN's Lou Dobbs that the fence alone will do nothing.

``As someone who has worked that border area for a number of years, I will tell you a fence in and of itself is just a slogan, it's not an answer," Napolitano said. ``A real answer means you've got to deal with the underlying labor issues, impact of immigration, visa reform, the workers already here."

She added, ``You need to deal with visa reform so that we have more people crossing legally through the ports, and you need to deal firmly and realistically with the 12-million already in our country through heavy fines, sanctions, learning to speak English."

Napolitano told Dobbs, ``The voters of my state understand that building a fence is not a solution. Indeed, what I'm fond of saying is, you show me a 12-foot fence and I'll show you a 13-foot ladder."

Fencing in some areas does make sense, Napolitano said, and a fence has been built along several sections of the Arizona-Mexico border.

But, she said, ``You also need technology, you need more manpower, you need to deal with visa reform."





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