Posted on 04/01/2008 11:54:22 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will use its authority to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest U.S. border by the end of 2008, federal officials said Tuesday.
Invoking the two legal waivers, which Congress authorized, will cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that currently impede the Homeland Security Department from building 267 miles of fencing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, according to officials familiar with the plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about it.
The move is the biggest use of legal waivers since the administration started building the fence, and it will cover a total of 470 miles along the Southwest border, the department said. Previously, the department has used its waiver authority for two portions of fence in Arizona and one portion in San Diego.
"Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement. "These waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward."
As of March 17, there were 309 miles of fencing in place, leaving 361 to be completed by the end of the year to meet the department's goal. Of those, 267 miles are being held up by federal, state and local laws and regulations, the officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Chertoff had said using the waivers would be a last resort. The department has held more than 100 meetings with lawmakers, environmental groups and residents in an effort to work out obstacles and objections to fence construction.
The department will conduct environmental assessments when necessary. But the waivers enable the department to start building before completing the assessments. Chertoff said the department will continue to ask for input on the construction plans.
Even as the fence is being built, debate continues about whether it will stem illegal immigration.
Fernando Carrillo, a 32-year-old construction worker who was deported from Arizona six months ago, said the added security wouldn't stop him from trying to get back to his wife and three children in Phoenix. His youngest child was born while he was in Mexico.
"They can do what they want, but we will keep trying," he said while walking Tuesday with two other migrants along the newly built wall west of Nogales.
He said they were heading to an area where the wall had yet to be built.
"Whatever they do, you just have to keep trying because there, if you work hard, you can make ends meet," he said.
Residents and property owners along the U.S.-Mexico border have complained about the fence construction. In South Texas, where opposition has been widespread, land owners refused to give the government access to property along the fence route. The government has since sued more than 50 property owners in South Texas to gain access to the land.
Environmentalists have also complained about the fence because they say it puts already endangered species such as two types of wild cats — the ocelot and the jaguarundi — in even more danger of extinction. They say the fence would prevent them from swimming across the Rio Grande to mate.
"Unwilling to consult with local communities or to follow long-standing laws, Secretary Chertoff chose to bypass stakeholders and push through this unpopular project on April Fool's Day," Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said in a statement. "We don't think the destruction of the borderlands region is a laughing matter."
Chertoff has said the fence is good for the environment because immigrants degrade the land with trash and human waste when they sneak illegally into the country.
Border Fence PING
I wonder how much of a hand Hunter had in getting this done.
A day late, and a dollar short, IMHO.
What about all the illegal aliens that are already in our country?
FRiends, when you write that check to the IRS, you should know where your hard earned dollar is going. But, you have no say, in that matter.
Food stamps
education
medical care
subsidized housing
Lawsuits that pay the salaries of the ACLU
Court costs for the massacre on our highways due to DUI illegals.
I could go own and own.......but what good will it do. NONE.
A day late, and a dollar short, IMHO.
What about all the illegal aliens that are already in our country?
FRiends, when you write that check to the IRS, you should know where your hard earned dollar is going. But, you have no say, in that matter.
Food stamps
education
medical care
subsidized housing
Lawsuits that pay the salaries of the ACLU
Court costs for the massacre on our highways due to DUI illegals.
I could go own and own.......but what good will it do. NONE.
The Bush administration will use its authority to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest U.S. border by the end of 2008, federal officials said Tuesday.
If this actually happens, verifiable, then I shall re-evaluate my opinion of Bush.
It’s late. Better late than never for the US I suppose. It’s too little, too late for Bush. He had his chance to lead on this issue and passed it up.
“He had his chance to lead on this issue and passed it up.”
Oh he was leading, just the wrong people in the wrong direction. However I can forgive if the fence gets built.
This fence is to keep them in.
Ha ha.
Regards
The dolts can complain about the destruction wrought by the fence, while totally ignoring the destruction caused by hundreds of thousands of illegal human feet? And that is not even mentioning all the attendant trash, used needles, and human feces left in their wake.
Another component missing from Sierra Club's argument against the fence: crimes, committed against legal Americans, by those who should not even be in this country.
I have, ABSOLUTELY, no sympathy for the guy whose family is on this side of the border. If he was really interested in staying with his family, he should have come here legally. If his own country is broken, he should stay there and fix it.
too bad Bush didn’t do this kind of stuff about six years ago.
Oh well. Just get the damn thing built.
(I'd post the link, but I'm too computeredly inept.)
After the 670 miles are built, they will just use this to pass comprehensive immigration reform. “See...the fence is built and the borders secure...now let’s give amnesty to everyone already here”. 670 miles of fencing helps, but is about 1500 miles short of what it should be. The only way to stop the slow decaying of our nation is to build a 2300 mile “Great Wall of China On Steroids” along our southern border and then deport all illegals and arrest the business owners who knowingly hired them.
It’s all BS and hogwash. Politics as usual and the fence will not be built.
Exactly!
What difference does it make when you are building a freeway from Mexico to Canada?
They tried this 2 years ago during the last election. Once the 2006 election was over **POOF** the funding for the fence was canceled! I don’t think I am going to fall for this again.
And do you believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?
Bush Administration to Issue Waivers to Build U.S.-Mexico Border Fence.........
jorge...clueless condi and company....won’t build the fence between the US and mexico.....
they are too busy giving money to egypt to build a fence to keep out the f’n pali muzzies!!!!
The first hispanic president actually want’s this! OMG
My guess is that this is political, by trying to take heat off McCain.
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