We need people barriers
Israeli wall
Posted on 03/10/2006 7:14:13 PM PST by Borax Queen
Up to 50 miles of new fencing would be built along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona under a measure from Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.
The committee also voted Thursday to double the size of Border Patrol by hiring an additional 10,000 to 12,000 new agents in the next five years.
Judiciary Committee members approved an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act that would replace old fencing in Arizona border towns including Douglas, Naco, Lukeville and Nogales with double- or triple-layered fencing and extend that same fencing at least two miles in each of the state's seven border towns, as well as building 25 miles of new fencing in a heavily used smuggling corridor west of Naco.
In addition, the amendment would add 200 miles of vehicle barriers — steel railroad rails pounded into the ground at different heights — in rural areas like Sasabe, the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation and east of Yuma to stop smuggling.
The measure — which must gain approval from the Senate and House of Representatives to become official — would cost an estimated $700 million, Kyl said. Nonetheless, Kyl said he feels his colleagues finally understand the urgency to help the Arizona border.
"We've tried for a long time to get more resources to the state of Arizona to gain control of the border and it's a good step in that direction," Kyl said.
The proposal differs from one passed last year by the House that called for 700 miles of continuous 15-foot-high fencing. Large parts of the border are separated by little more than barbed-wire fences less than 5 feet high.
About 70 miles of the border near urban areas such as San Diego have been fortified with higher fences, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Friel said.
"In every area where adequate fencing has been put up, it has decreased crime, improved the environment, enhanced law enforcement, and provided greater protection for people on both sides of the border," Kyl said.
Douglas Mayor Ray Borane — whose town would theoretically benefit from the proposal — called the proposal the latest "idea of the month" from Washington, D.C.
"It's starting to be ridiculous to be honest with you," Borane said. "As long as I've been in office, I've been dealing with everybody's ideas."
Borane, who's been mayor for 10 years, said legislators focus too much time and money on the border itself rather than on the bigger picture.
"They just keep throwing money at the border with all these new novelty things that they try," he said. "It's just a waste of taxpayers' money."
Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network, a Tucson-based social-justice group that advocates for civil rights and human dignity, said the latest measure comes from the same out-of-touch mind-set as previous proposals.
"The issues and the reasons that people leave home are so much more compelling and profound than a wall," Allen said. "So it ends up being millions and millions of dollars wasted."
Kyl said he authored the measure after talking with Border Patrol agents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors about what they need.
Johnny Bernal, spokesman for the Tucson Sector, said the solution will take more than just fences that illegal entrants go under, through and over. He said the agency needs a combination of infrastructure, manpower and technology to gain control. The vehicle barriers can be valuable in rural areas, he said.
"In some areas, the vehicle barriers would be just as useful, if not more useful, than a fence," Bernal said.
Glenn Spencer, founder of American Border Patrol, said he likes the idea for the double and triple fencing but said he prefers the House measure for a continuous fence. He believes the vehicle barriers would do nothing to stop the flow of drug smugglers who enter by foot. "It's got to be continuous or they will just go around it," Spencer said.
The Senate panel is working on President Bush's priority of changing U.S. immigration policies and creating a new guest-worker program. The House approved immigration legislation last year that calls for fencing along the Mexican border, while omitting a new guest-worker program.
The Senate proposal, sponsored by Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., includes a guest-worker program and a proposal to allow illegal workers in the United States by January 2004 to apply for legal status. A study by the Pew Hispanic Center released this week estimated the number of illegal immigrants in this country has grown to 12 million, and said they make up more than 10 percent of employees in construction, office- and housecleaning, and food preparation jobs. Under Specter's plan, undocumented workers who have been here since January 2004 could apply for a new "gold card" visa that would let them stay indefinitely after undergoing a background check. The measure also creates a new guest-worker program that would let illegal immigrants work in the U.S. for up to six years, after which they would have to return to their home countries.
The Senate proposal requires U.S. employers to verify the employment status of all new hires within five years, compared with the House-passed legislation that requires employers to verify all current employees within six years.
The Senate panel completed debate on the border security sections of the measure Thursday and will turn to discussions on the guest-worker and visa programs on Wednesday.
"We've tackled the easiest things first," Kyl said after the committee adjourned.
Specter is working to complete committee debate on the legislation next week to meet a timetable set by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., for full Senate debate on immigration beginning March 27.
Kyl said the Border Patrol will decide what type of fence is erected under his amendment and how much of the border in Arizona is covered.
By the numbers:
About 54:
Miles of border fence currently on the Arizona border. (42.8 miles in the Tucson Sector and 11 miles in the Yuma Sector).
Up to 103:
Miles of border fence if this measure passes
More than 2,400:
Number of Border Patrol agents currently in the Tucson Sector
638
Number of Border Patrol agents currently in the Yuma Sector:
About 11,000
Number of Border Patrol agents in the nation
Number of Border Patrol agents there would be if the measure passes: 10,000-12,000 more over five years, doubling the total to 21,000 -23,000.
"In every area where adequate fencing has been put up, it has decreased crime, improved the environment, enhanced law enforcement and provided greater protection for people on both sides of the border."
U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, creator of measure
"They just keep throwing money at the border with all these new novelty things that they try. It's just a waste of taxpayers' money."
Ray Borane, mayor of Douglas
Ping.
54 miles isn't very much
Nope. And I'll believe it when they start pounding nails or mixing mortar.
It's a start. And keep building the fence causes the illegals to funnel into other areas where the Border patrol can concentrate their efforts.
Or just pushes them into the desert. Not very humain.
I'm wondering when the immigration reform is going to be worked on ie 4337. This bill asks for 700 miles of fence, and I hope it passes senate. If it doesn't, some senators need to be fired.
"The issues and the reasons that people leave home are so much more compelling and profound than a wall," Allen said. "So it ends up being millions and millions of dollars wasted."
Oh, Jennifer --- "In every area where adequate fencing has been put up, it has decreased crime, improved the environment, enhanced law enforcement, and provided greater protection for people on both sides of the border," Kyl said.
We need people barriers
Israeli wall
They get it done, and we don't. Sad.
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Bump.
More policy deliberately designed to fail. God forbid that we would actually impede the flow of cheap, taxpayer subsidized labor.
Or it could push them to stay home. But, that probably isn't human enough for you either?
Thank you for having done so. At the time I simply thought of it as typical Liberal drivel, not worth remembering the particulars of. Funny how some recurring idiocies come back to haunt you.
Oops replied to wrong thread. sorry.
Wow 50 miles, go Jon go. The Senate has no intention of stopping illegal immigration, what they're doing is nothing but a charade. Should the GOP lose they can't say they weren't warned.
"It's starting to be ridiculous to be honest with you," Borane said. "As long as I've been in office, I've been dealing with everybody's ideas."
Borane, who's been mayor for 10 years, said legislators focus too much time and money on the border itself rather than on the bigger picture.
"They just keep throwing money at the border with all these new novelty things that they try," he said. "It's just a waste of taxpayers' money."
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I wonder how much this QUisling is paid every month by the drug cartels to keep the border wide open?
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