June 12, 2007, 5:45PM
White House opposes mandate of local input on border security


By SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


WASHINGTON — President Bush threatened to veto a House homeland security spending bill on Tuesday, opposing its price tag and criticizing a mandate for community input on border fencing and technology.

Bush's veto threat of the $37.4 billion spending bill was delivered the same day he lobbied Republican senators for support of an immigration reform bill during a closed-door luncheon. The administration said the bill exceeds Bush's spending requests.

If the legislation went to the president, "he would veto the bill," the statement issued by the White House's Office of Management and Budget said.

The spending bill provides $8.8 billion for Customs and Border Protection, including $1 billion for fencing and technology. But the bill mandates that $700 million be withheld until congressional appropriations committees approve an investment and spending plan for the Secure Border Initiative program.

The bill also requires that the Homeland Security Department solicit input from state and local communities about fencing and "tactical infrastructure" plans, language requested by Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, a member of the appropriations committee.

"The president and Homeland Security stand to benefit from the input of the local community — landowners and local law enforcement — who deal with border life and border security every day," Rodriguez said Tuesday.

The administration said the restrictions on the Secure Border Initiative and the mandate for local input would "serve as an impediment to gaining control of the border."

The White House said DHS and the SBI program have already done "extensive outreach and coordination with state and local officials and residents along the border."

Plans for fencing along the Texas border have angered local communities and landowners.

Some officials believe they have not been consulted, while others say a physical fence will hurt the relationships of border cities with their Mexican neighbors. Local communities also are concerned the fencing and other technology will hurt wildlife, tourism and ranching and farming.

Bush signed a law last year requiring 700 miles of fence to be built on the U.S.-Mexican border, but the Homeland Security Department has said it wants to build about 370 miles of actual fence and supplement that with a "virtual" fence of sensors, mobile towers with cameras, agents and other technology.

The administration also opposes language in the bill that directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house families in a "non-penal, homelike environment.

Immigration and civil rights groups have criticized family immigration centers, including one in Taylor, Texas, near Austin, that was previously a privately run prison.

The bill requirement is likely to increase illegal immigration and significantly increase the cost of detentions, reduce the quality of medical care and education that ICE provides at the facilities and "significantly undermine security associated with detaining adult illegal aliens," according to the White House.

"Due to the lack of such facilities available to DHS, this measure would essentially mandate the reintroduction of the practice of "catch and release" — a program in which detained illegal immigrants were released into the country on personal recognizance bonds to await deportation hearings.

Meanwhile, after meeting behind closed doors with Bush, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, suggested Congress first pass an emergency spending bill to pay for border security.

"I think most of the members of our caucus believe we need to have a comprehensive immigration reform. They are concerned about border security and a feeling in the country that the government is not going to do what it says it's going to do," Hutchison said. "That was brought out to the president."

Hutchison and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn do not support the Senate's immigration reform bill. Hutchison wants an amendment requiring illegal immigrants to leave the country before they can work legally in the United States. Cornyn has said he has other concerns and wants to amend the bill as well.

Cornyn said Bush did not commit to an emergency border security spending bill.

"If there's one consistent thing I've heard from proponents and opponents is that the federal government doesn't have much credibility when it comes to enforcing our immigration laws," Cornyn said.

The Homeland Security Appropriations bill is HR 2638.

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