President Bush, appearing at a Paradise Valley resort at the foot of Camelback Mountain, authorized a Homeland Security Department funding bill Wednesday that features $1.2 billion for additional fences, technology and manpower along the U.S.-Mexico border.



“That’s what the people of this country want. They want to know that we’re modernizing the border so we can better secure the border,” Bush said, surrounded by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., three Republican U.S. representatives from Arizona and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano.

The measure provides money for fences, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech ground-based radar and infrared cameras designed to prevent and detect illegal border crossings.

The bill also criminalizes construction of tunnels under the border, and provides funding for 1,500 additional U.S. Border Patrol agents and detention centers that will hold at least 6,700 people.

The detention centers are crucial to border security efforts because they will be used to house illegal immigrants until authorities are able to deport them. Currently, Border Patrol agents often use a “catch and release” approach when apprehending illegal immigrants, Bush said.

“Because there was no detention beds, the Border Patrol would say, ‘Why

don’t you check back in with us after awhile? There’s no place to hold you, so check back in with the judges.’ And of course, they didn’t check back in. It created a lot of frustration with the Border Patrol,” Bush said.

Specific placement of fencing and high-tech sensors along the 2,000-mile border has yet to be determined, Kyl said. Those decisions will be based on Homeland Security data.

Arizona, which has become the focal point of illegal crossings, is certain to receive a significant amount of the resources authorized by the bill, Kyl said after the ceremony.

“It’s not like Arizona gets money from this, but for example, when more Border Patrol agents are trained, they will be deployed here, fencing will be constructed here, vehicle barriers will be constructed here,” he said.

Overall, the appropriations bill provides $33.8 billion for a variety of programs within the Homeland S ecurity Department. The money also will be used to strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency, deploy nuclear detection equipment at ports of entry and raise security standards at chemical plants.

While the legislation is aimed at helping secure the border, the measure fell well short of a five-point immigration plan Bush championed during a tour of the border near Yuma in May.

The president wanted 6,000 new Border Patrol agents by 2008, a guest worker program that would allow foreign nationals to work legally in the United States, creation of tamperproof identification cards to verify workers’ immigration status and a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States.

Bush renewed his call for those measures Wednesday. “The funds that Congress has appropriated are critical for our efforts to secure this border and enforce our laws,” he said.

“Yet, we must also recognize that enforcement alone is not going to work. You need comprehensive reform that provides a legal way for people to work here on a temporary basis. It’s going to relieve pressure on the border. It will enable our Border Patrol agents to do a better job when we reduce the number of people trying to sneak into the country,” the president said.

While the legislation doesn’t address the entire immigration matter, it’s a start, said Napolitano, who attended the signing ceremony at the president’s invitation.

“Congress needs to go back and look at the migration issues and the visa issues and temporary worker issues,” she said.

Earlier, during the fundraising portion of the program at the Camelback Inn, Bush urged those who paid at least $500 each for Danishes and coffee to support Republican candidates because of their dedication to the war on terrorism.

Dozens of anti-war protesters demonstrated along Lincoln Drive outside the resort.

The breakfast event, which attracted about 350 people, raised about $500,000 for Rep. Rick Renzi, according to his aides. Renzi represents the 1st Congressional District which includes regions of rural eastern and northern Arizona.

Contact Paul Giblin by email, or phone (480) 970-2331

Border fence hits wall of skepticism

Critics question effectiveness, cost estimates

CALEXICO, Calif. - Legislation passed by Congress mandating the fencing of 700 miles of the U.S. border with Mexico has sparked opposition from an array of land managers, businesspeople, law enforcement officials, environmentalists and U.S. Border Patrol agents as a one-size-fits-all policy response to the nettlesome task of securing the nation's borders.

Critics say the fence does not take into account the extraordinarily varied geography of the 2,000-mile-long border, which cuts through Mexican and U.S. cities separated by a sidewalk, vast scrubland and deserts, rivers, irrigation canals and miles of mountainous terrain. They also say it seems to ignore advances in border security that don't involve construction of a 15-foot-high double fence and to play down what are expected to be significant costs to maintain the new barrier.

And, they say, the estimated $2 billion price tag and the mandate that it be completed by 2008 overlook 10 years of legal and logistical difficulties the federal government has faced to finish a comparatively tiny fence of 14 miles dividing San Diego and Tijuana.

"This is the feel-good approach to immigration control," said Wayne Cornelius, an expert on immigration issues at the University of California at San Diego. "The only pain is experienced by the migrants themselves. It doesn't hurt U.S. consumers; it doesn't hurt U.S. businesses. It only hurts taxpayers if they pay attention to spending on border enforcement."

San Diego has become a symbol for the efficacy of fences, but a closer look at the experience of that seaside city also illustrates the potential pitfalls.

In the mid-1990s, the city was awash in illegal immigrants. Hundreds would gather by a soccer field near Otay Mesa, east of San Diego, and rush into the United States on what the Border Patrol termed "banzai runs." During those years, Border Patrol agents routinely apprehended 200,000 illegal entrants a year in the sector. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., got funding to build a fence and thousands more Border Patrol officers were dispatched to the area. The number of crossers plummeted.

But the fence, originally estimated at $14 million, incurred huge cost overruns and logistical and legal hurdles. It took $39 million to build the first nine miles, and the fence has yet to be finished. For a decade, litigation has delayed construction of 3.5 miles of the structure because environmental groups have opposed a federal plan to lop the tops off two mesas and pour 5.5 million cubic feet of dirt into a valley, called "Smuggler's Gulch," to flatten the terrain. Environmental groups lost the case when the Department of Homeland Security invoked a law exempting it from federal and state regulations in the interest of national security. DHS recently appropriated an additional $35 million to complete the fence - for a total of $74 million, or more than $5 million a mile.

The fence in San Diego forced illegal traffic into the deserts to the east, leading thousands of migrants to their death. In response, the Border Patrol shifted thousands of agents to Arizona to deal with the flow. But many of those agents came from the San Diego and El Centro sectors. So once again, the number of crossers in San Diego and El Centro is increasing even though the two sectors are the most heavily fenced in the nation.

"Tucson now has 2,600 agents. San Diego has lost 1,000 agents. Guess where the traffic is going? Back to San Diego." said T.J. Bonner, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, the main union for Border Patrol agents. "San Diego is the most heavily fortified border in the entire country, and yet it's not stopping people from coming across."

There are concerns along the border that the congressionally mandated fence could overshadow new, cheaper technologies that show some promise. For example, 30 miles of reinforced vehicle barriers, which cost on average $1 million a mile, have reduced by 95 percent road traffic from drug and migrant smugglers into the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, where a park ranger was shot and killed by narcotics traffickers in 2002, said Kathy Billings, superintendent of the territory.

"We used to have two to three high-speed chases a month," she said. "Now we have less than six a year."

But even the vehicle barriers, posts in the ground connected to one another by railroad ties, need year-round maintenance.

I mean look at what failures Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall of China were....oh,wait....no they werent.....never mind