Michelle Mittelstadt
Houston Chronicle
Sept. 20, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - A Senate plan to build 700 miles of border fencing hit a snag Tuesday when Texas' senators said the Department of Homeland Security and border communities, not Congress, should decide where the fence is built.

The objections by Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn complicated plans by Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to win passage this week of a bill intended to showcase to voters the GOP's commitment to border security. The House passed an identical fencing bill last week, with specific locations for the fence.

"I don't want Congress mandating where fences go," Hutchison said. "We have done a lot, and we're going to continue to work on border security, but we have to let the department put the resources where they are most needed."
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Cornyn agreed about the barrier along the Mexico border.

"For Washington to try to dictate to places like Laredo, Texas, exactly where fences need to be built is, to my mind, ludicrous," he said.

Homeland Security officials are best positioned to determine how to deploy a mix of fences, electronic surveillance, Border Patrol agents and unmanned aerial vehicles, said Cornyn, who chairs the Senate immigration subcommittee.

The possibility that other senators would add sweeping amendments to the bill further clouded its prospects.

Some Republicans worried that Democrats would try to attach a broader immigration package that would create a guest-worker program and let undocumented immigrants work toward citizenship.

Also, Republicans eager to help agribusiness interests that are struggling to find workers might try to tack on an agricultural guest-worker program, according to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Frist defended his effort to pass a border-security bill that fell short of President Bush's demand for a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

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