Sen. Ben Nelson
Posted on 03/04/2006 6:50:54 AM PST by Hat-Trick
Nelson wants to fence off Mexico
BY HENRY J. CORDES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
There's a growing consensus in Washington that before Congress can address comprehensive immigration reform, it must first crack down at the nation's borders, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Friday.
Sen. Ben Nelson
Nelson this week introduced a new border security bill, one that would go even further than the proposal he first outlined in September.
Among the provisions added since September is the construction of a $5 billion, two-layer reinforced fence that would stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico along the 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
The latest bill also includes a requirement that all employers verify that their workers are in the country legally and adds 10,000 new detention beds to hold those found in violation of federal immigration laws.
"It's a border-security-first bill," Nelson, a Democrat, said at an Omaha press conference.
"If we don't do something about the border, the problem is going to get worse."
Nelson introduced his latest bill on the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee began work on an immigration reform proposal. Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, has asked for a bill to be ready for debate by the full Senate later this month.
Nelson said the problem with most immigration proposals introduced to date is that they get bogged down over what to do with the estimated 10 million people already in the United States illegally.
There is much disagreement over that, from calls to deport them to various proposals to create amnesty or guest worker programs.
"A huge bill with guest workers or amnesty is going nowhere," he said.
Nelson said it will be possible to bring more people together if the issue of border security is addressed first.
A Nelson spokesman said the senator's bill is the only one in the Senate that includes provisions for a fence, though there have been other fence proposals in the House.
Nelson's bill is co-sponsored by two Republicans, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
While the cost of the fence might be high, Nelson said, it's modest compared to the cost of dealing with illegal immigration.
He said he didn't think his proposal would hurt companies in Nebraska that have come to rely on labor from undocumented workers. Nelson said efforts to stop illegal immigration should be accompanied by steps to increase legal immigration.
Overall, he said, his proposal would "solve the border security problem where it starts - at the border."
Nelson's Nebraska colleague, Chuck Hagel, is among the senators who have introduced bills for comprehensive immigration reform.
Hagel has advocated legislation that would give legal status to undocumented immigrant workers under certain conditions, such as maintaining a work history in America for several years and passing security and criminal background checks.
Asked about Nelson's security-fence proposal, Hagel said he makes a distinction between immigration reform and border security.
"I'm generally not in favor of building walls," he said.
This story includes material from the Associated Press.
Ha......my spies will now throw chum in the waters......
"If that RINO were running head to head for President against Ben Nelson, I'd vote for the Dim without thinking twice."
Me too. If the Dims keep on using common sense I just may think about becoming one!
.....while Sudan would step forth and say, "You are not doing it properly. Let us show you how to use slave labor! We will do your contract for 65% less and guarentee completion 180 days sooner."
Whatever sam donaldson. I'll stick with President Reagan.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall(President Ronald Reagan, West Berlin, 1987).
Dane: Me I would like to see a guest worker program implemented and anybody who has not signed up, immediately deported.
One of you wants to turn this into an anti drug thread, and the other wants to blunt any sensible, workable measures. Why is that?
The really obvious thing here should be that the Democrats are catching on to how serious the voters are on this subject, while the Republicans are trying to play a shell game and divert our attention.
Please, the demos "catching up". LOL! There are many different bills, McCain/kennedy, Kyl/Cornyn, and now this Coburn/Sessions/Nelson(2 Pubbies and 1 democrat, and one of the few democrats who voted for Alito).
So before you spout something, do your research, and also the lib media is promoting McCain/kennedy, which includes real amnesty, while I support Kyl/Cornyn, which doesn't.
I like the way you think.
You are right. Mexico is an outhouse as far as their worker (PEE ON) class is concerned. But exporting their problem to us allows them to not fix it.
I'm glad to see that Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) is in on this. Alabama is being flooded with illegals too.
A democrat who gets it and a supposed republican in Hagel ready to sell us out. This November is going to be very interesting.
O.K. you started it...
I am not so stupid as to not be able to tell the difference between a fence meant to keep something in as opposed to out.
Nor am I stupid enough to believe that the proposed legislation you cite will be enforced any better than the present laws.
Nor am I stupid enough to believe those proposals are little more than an act to get them through the next election, with the appearance of having done "something".
You claim to have done research.. fine...when you are ready to show some evidence of having learned anything.. get back to me.
Anyone who uses RR, and the Berlin Wall, to argue against a fence to control unfettered Mexican immigration, well, it's just impossible to argue against someone like that. I'd have to start at the beginning, like 2nd grade or so, and build on that base of understanding and logic, and then maybe we could talk. In your case, I don't have time.
RR said Berlin Wall bad.
Therefore, all walls bad.
No Cogito, ergo Dane.
JMO, sarcasm isn't your all DUmmies strong suit.
Earth to Dubya, come in Dubya....
crickets chirping...(en espanol)
He wants illegal aliens, and supposedly we are the DUmmies. I think Ol Dane is mad. (pun intended)
The Berlin wall was primarily built to keep their people in, rather than other people out. Either wall would serve both functions.
Just because plugging the biggest leak doesn't make the boat watertight is no reason to stand there and let it sink. Bailing (rounding up and shipping illegals home) isn't cheap either, and the expense is completely open ended.
You wouldn't understand sarcasm, as you don't understand border issues. By the way, RR would have been strongly in favor of a fence. During his administration, "La Migra" still went into neighborhoods and factories and rounded up Mexicans and shipped them back to Mexico. He opposed immigration reform for years, and finally agreed to it after Senator Simpson of Wyo. pushed it for years. Employer sanctions were the key, and would have worked, if they had been enforced after Reagan. Instead, they became a joke. But RR hated the idea of amnesty, it was the biggest stumbling block. Faced with a wide open border and no enforcement, he'd have done two things: Enforced the border, enforced employer sanctions, and challenged congress to come up with a guest worker program that wasn't a disguised amnesty.
But you know RR better than I. After all, you have a picture of him at the Berlin Wall. Newbie.
Don't confuse him with facts.. He's done research.
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