Plenty of lechuguilla and cactus too.
Posted on 09/29/2006 7:40:28 PM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance
Edited on 09/29/2006 7:52:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
The House version of the bill approving and funding the building of a U.S./Mexico border wall has overwhelmingly passed the Senate, according to KFI News.
Link to station provided.
UPDATE: Senate backs fence along Mexico border
Reuters
By Donna Smith and Richard Cowan
The U.S. Senate on Friday overwhelmingly agreed to authorize construction of a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico, sending to President George W. Bush before the November 7 elections a bill that Republicans hope will showcase their efforts to stop illegal immigration.
The Republican-written bill authorizing construction of about 700 miles of fence was one of the last bills to clear Congress as lawmakers prepared to leave Washington to campaign for the congressional elections. On a vote of 80-19 the Senate approved the bill already passed by the House of Representatives and it now goes to Bush for his signature.
Bush had sought broad immigration legislation that would create a guest-worker program to help provide a steady workforce for jobs Americans are either unable or unwilling to do. But he was unable to marshal support for it in the face of opposition from a solid group of House Republicans who pushed for tougher enforcement and border measures instead.
A separate bill approved by the House on Friday provided an initial $1.2 billion in funding for the fence and other border-security measures for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1. The money is part of a $34.8 billion bill for domestic security programs for the fiscal year that begins October 1.
The broad spending bill also criminalizes the construction of tunnels that could be secret passageways from Mexico or Canada for drug smugglers, illegal aliens or terrorists.
The Senate was expected to pass the funding bill quickly and send it on to Bush along with the fence authorization.
Opponents of the fence said it would be expensive and was not an effective deterrent to illegal immigration.
"This is a political gimmick," said Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat from Colorado. "It is not in the long-term interest of of the United States of America and the Western Hemisphere."
The government of Mexico on Thursday issued a statement expressing "its profound concern" with the fence. The statement, translated from Spanish, said such measures "are contrary to the spirit of cooperation that should prevail to guarantee security in the common border."
IMMIGRATION OVERHAUL
Backers of the fence said it was an important tool to clamp down against illegal immigration. An estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested in the last fiscal year trying to cross into the United States along the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Sections of the fence would be built in each state.
"Fortifying our borders is the first prong of comprehensive immigration reform and it's an integral piece of national security," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
Lawmakers and analysts say Congress could tackle comprehensive immigration legislation in a post-election sessions, but they acknowledge difficulties.
"It will be tough but doable," said Rep. Adam Putnam (news, bio, voting record), a Florida Republican.
"There is a lot of pent up pressure and interest in doing something in the lame duck session," said Craig Regelbrugge of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform.
Democrats accused the Republican majority of playing politics with the fence bill after raising immigration as an election-year issue but having little to show in the way of legislation.
"This is about November. This is about incumbent protection, not about border protection," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Earlier this year the Senate passed broad immigration legislation that combined border security and employer sanctions with a plan to create a guest-worker program and provide a path to citizenship for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
The Senate and House were unable to compromise and instead resorted to passing a series narrow border security measures.
Don't you have the nerve to ping Dane when you talk about Dane? You're suppose to, you know that.
80 -19.....shades of a miracle.....what the H***l is going on....?
But they don't over ride the Constitution.
Sorry.
L
Same thing with the surveillance and tribunal issues. They'll stay away from the nitty gritty of usurping the Power of a President as Commander in Chief.
Plenty of lechuguilla and cactus too.
Well I got to tell you it has been a trying past few months, held my peace and am most thankful. It is said things do look darkest before the dawn.
The vote count does tell the story considering the so many loud voices that have been claiming otherwise.
"Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.
Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
There is a little mention of treaties in the US Constitution, by the way.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articleii.html#section2
Texas mostly occupied land east of what is now I-35 and north of the Nueces River. Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as the border. When the US annexed Texas at the end of 1845, the Polk administration adopted Texas' claim. Nueces County, which is located south of north bank of the Nueces River, was organized by the State of Texas in 1846 to advance the Texas claim to the land located between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers.
The fence is mostly going to be in New Mexico, Arizona, and California which were not part of the US till after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo but had been occupied by US military forces since 1846. It wasn't Texans primarily who took that territory from Mexico.
So did Clinton
Dream on.
Oh these pathetic liberals in both parties had to be drug kicking and screaming to this vote. The only thing they claimed about themselves is they can do things smarter and better....
Well funny thing happened to them tonight they joined the peoples House in the smarter and better path to security.
How do you figure this will have any impact on legitimate business? Anyone on legitimate business crosses at the Port of Entries. Only illegal acticities cross the border in between.
You're right.
Watching the History Channel documentary about the Mexican-American war I see :)
Exactly, which is why most border-state Democrats voted yes on the bill (except for the ACLU-type ultra-liberals).
I would have increased the fence allotment considerably though, from 700 miles to the entire length.
Can't they just blast the rocks to make the terrain buildable? ~~~~
The polls will be improving as the pollsters have been lying and now the reckoning is coming due, so they have to shift as they don't want to be "inaccurate" come November.
The shrill voices here will get more and more shrill as fear raises the pitch in their utterances.
I could have said the same things even if I hadn't seen that program. I am a life long resident of Nueces County, Texas and know about its history. My office is less than a quarter mile from spot where General Zachary Taylor's army set up their first camp in the disputed territory south of the Nueces River.
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