Hunter wants 40-mile border fence in Yuma
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/vi ... 0732-1059r
Hunter wants 40-mile border fence in Yuma
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A top California lawmaker Tuesday called for the construction of a 40-mile border fence in Arizona.
The fence would shield a Marine Corps combat training range has been shut down more than 500 times in the last two years because illegal immigrants were walking across it.
The closures resulted in the loss of 15 percent of training time on the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma's Barry M. Goldwater West range, according to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
"A complete fencing solution is called for -- partial or virtual fences won't work," stated Hunter in a press release issued Tuesday.
According to Hunter, some 17,500 illegal immigrants have attempted to cross at the range and the number is growing because of improved border policing and fences in California and southeastern Arizona. The Goldwater range shares 40 miles of border with Mexico.
Hunter said a 1.5-mile-wide interdiction zone along the border, which Customs and Border Patrol has proposed instead of a fence, will impact range operations. He also said a partial fence would likely push illegal immigrant traffic into the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge "resulting in significant environmental impacts," or east to the sovereign lands of the Tohono-O'odham Nation, where it would burden local law enforcement.
Hunter also called for the possible deployment of National Guard troops along the northern border to provide the surveillance coverage it is providing in a temporary program along the southern border.
Hunter also said Joint Task Force-North, a U.S. military force that conducts counter-terrorist and counter-narcotics missions at the U.S. borders has detected three tunnels on the southwest border with Mexico and confirmed the existence of one tunnel on the northern border with Canada.
