Bush signs bill to build Mexico-border fence
President Bush signed a law to build a border fence along the US-Mexico border. The fence will be hundreds of miles long and cost about 6 billion dollars. “It’s what the people of this country want,” Bush said.
The President held a signing ceremony Wednesday in Arizona.
President Bush:
“The bill I sign today includes nearly $1.2 billion in additional funding for strengthening the border, for new infrastructure and technology that will help us do our job. It provides funding for more border fencing, vehicle barriers and lighting, for cutting-edge technology - including ground-based radar, infrared cameras and advanced sensors — that will help prevent illegal crossings along our southern border. It’s what the people of this country want.”
Under the bill, the number of border patrol agents will increase by 50 per cent to 18,000 by 2008, and sophisticated equipment will be added to help spot unlawful crossers, including ground base radar, infrared cameras and advance sensors.
An additional 6,700 new beds will be added to detention centres. Currently, many illegal immigrants are arrested but sent away with a court date because there is no place to hold them.
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the US.
An estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested last year trying to cross into the US along the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Supporters of the fence have said it will be a crucial tool to fight illegal immigration - which is expected to be a key issue in November’s mid-term elections. Coming less than five weeks before the November 7 congressional elections, the measure gives Bush’s beleaguered Republican Party a badly needed issue to please its conservative base and motivate supporters.
The centre-right Republicans are at risk of losing their majorities in both chambers of Congress to the centre-left Democrats, partly out of disaffection with the war in Iraq.
The barrier will affect all four US states bordering Mexico. Even if the legislation’s double fencing is constructed as written before 2009 along nearly the entire Arizona border, most of the New Mexico border and parts of the frontier California and Texas, nearly 2,000 kilometres of the US-Mexican border would remain unsecured. Critics of the scheme say it will force illegal immigrants to cross somewhere else.
Mexico has also said the fence will badly affect relations with the US.
The Mexican government strongly opposes the fence, saying it will lead to more deaths and injuries for those who come into the United States through dangerous terrain. Outgoing Mexican President, Vicente Fox, has called the fence shameful, and compared it to the Berlin Wall.
The bill only authorizes 1.2 billion dollars for what is expected to be a 6-billion-dollar project.
bbc
monsters and critics
democracynow
Stumble it!
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Building the fence is both a good idea and a terrible one. I think it will discourage as much illegal immigration, but it also goes against some of our most sacred American values - freedom to choose where to live and the freedom to come to America to build a better life. Many Mexicans abhor the idea of taking advantage of America as they want to work hard for their families, but they must do this legally through new laws that both strengthen and ease the immigration process. The fence should only be built if it augments more effective legislation.
I think this gentleman suggests spirited debate in an interesting liberal context, albeit in-favor-of fence consrtuction.
http://old-things.blogspot.com/2007/10/my-home-is-protected-by-neither-lasers.html