Border coalition urges end to fence funding
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 09/11/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


AUSTIN -- Congress should reject the Bush administration's request for an additional $400 million to build fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border, a coalition of Texas border officials and business leaders said Wednesday.
"It would be a taxpayer travesty for Congress to reward DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) for its inability to control spending," Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, wrote in a letter to U.S. House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

Homeland security officials told Congress on Wednesday that the 670-mile fence might not be completed this year and that it was $400 million over budget because of increased fuel and steel costs and limited available labor.

The Bush administration had hoped to finish the fence this year. About 340 miles of fence has been built. Congress so far has approved $2.6 billion for fence construction.

Many Texas border communities have opposed the fence, and have filed lawsuits to prevent the barrier from being built in environmentally sensitive areas, on private property or in areas where it could disrupt farming.

El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar said taxpayer money would be more wisely used to help Americans struggling in the sagging economy.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the request for more money proved the project would continue to waste tax money.

He called the fence a "failed approach" to border security.

"We should be investing in more

boots on the ground and in technologies that will help secure our borders and our ports of entry," Reyes said.
The El Paso business community is not opposed to the fence per se, said Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce President Richard Dayoub.

Its position is that border security should be a part of a comprehensive plan to overhaul immigration in the U.S.

Fencing off the borders, Dayoub said, is neither economically nor logistically feasible.

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.




http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10432600