ScreamingEagle
Gold Member
- Jul 5, 2004
- 13,399
- 1,707
- 245
It would be nice to get something on immigration passed this session.
Sept 14, 2006
WASHINGTON - House Republicans are renewing their push to construct nearly 700 miles of two-layered reinforced fences along the U.S.-Mexico border as the first installment in a series of border security initiatives they hope to send to President Bush in the closing weeks of Congress.
The fence proposal is identical to one that was included in an immigration enforcement bill passed by the House of Representatives in December 2005. But with that measure sidelined in a stalemate with the Senate, House leaders plan to resurrect the $2.2 billion barrier in a single-shot bill that House members are expected to pass today.
House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., said the Secure Fence Act represents the opening salvo in an end-of-session flurry of initiatives designed to stem the flow of illegal immigration along the Southwest border.
House leaders have refused to consider a more comprehensive Senate-passed bill that would create a foreign guest-worker program and put millions of illegal immigrants on a path toward permanent legal status and U.S. citizenship. Leading supporters of the Senate plan acknowledge that it appears dead for the year.
'Comprehensive reform'
But President Bush isn't giving up on his push for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws and wants the House and Senate to "work together to come up with comprehensive reform," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday.
Asked whether the White House supports the proposed fence, Snow responded, "What the administration wants is comprehensive reform."
The other House proposals will be announced today, Boehner and King said, and are expected to include more Border Patrol agents and the expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors and other high-tech hardware along the border.
House members approved the five-section fence as an amendment to its immigration bill by a vote of 260-159.
The largest sections include a 361-mile stretch from Calexico, Calif., to Douglas, Ariz., and 176 miles in Texas, from Laredo to Brownsville.
Two other sections of fencing also would be built in Texas - 51 miles from Del Rio to Eagle Pass, and 88 miles from El Paso to Columbus, N.M. A 22-mile section would be built near a port entry in Tecate, Calif., in eastern San Diego County.
Field hearings
House leaders moved forward with the border security package after a series of summertime field hearings that reinforced their opposition to the Senate-passed immigration bill.
Democrats have denounced the initiatives as political posturing by Republicans to appease voters demanding congressional action on illegal immigration.
With less than two weeks left before Congress quits work to campaign for the Nov. 7 election, the outlook for Senate passage of the border security package is uncertain at best.
But two leading architects of the Senate bill, Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Mel Martinez of Florida, said they would be willing to consider the initiatives.
Senators included 370 miles of fencing in their bill.
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