WASHINGTON — President Bush signed legislation Thursday to create a 700-mile fence that would stretch along a third of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
The barrier is to be constructed in tandem with a high-tech surveillance network known as the Secure Border Initiative, which Boeing Corp. is developing for the Department of Homeland Security.
The Republican-controlled Congress approved the fence Sept. 29, but it hasn’t approved funding for the four-state project, estimated to cost at least $2.2 billion.
Sen. Mel Martinez, while on a campaign tour with Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, said Thursday that signing the border legislation is just a first step.
“People seeking jobs and jobs seeking people cannot be resolved by the bill the president signed. What we have left hanging to do is deal with that and deal with the 12 million people that are already here illegally,” he said.
“I think there’s a pretty good consensus in the backroom meetings that are taking place on the idea of the guest-worker program. But I think what is tougher is how do we handle the 12 million people that are here?”
Martinez conceded that the prospect of a number of conservative Republicans losing House and Senate seats this November could contribute to a growing consensus on an amnesty program for those already in the U.S. illegally.
“I think it will, because I don’t think the harsh rhetoric is helping,” Martinez said.
Activists who helped mobilize more than 20,000 people in Orlando’s immigrant rally earlier this year said they were disappointed with what they saw as Bush’s reversal from his support for reform that would welcome immigrant workers in the U.S.
They joined national advocacy groups who have labeled the fence as a wall of shame, comparing it at times to the Berlin Wall, which divided Germany until 1989.
“Walls are a symbol of failure. They are a defensive and antagonistic posture,” said Sister Ann Kendrick, a Roman Catholic nun with the Office for Farmworker Ministry in Apopka. “We have to look at the bigger picture, because our own trade agreements depressed the corn market in Mexico, sending many of those farmers here to do ‘Sheetrocking’ and the like. The wall is not going to stop them.”
DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said the department will begin developing plans for the reinforced fence after Congress appropriates funding.
Even with the uncertain timetable for construction, Republicans hope to use the law as a political boost in the days remaining before the Nov. 7 congressional elections, citing the fence as evidence that they’re getting tough on border security and taking aggressive steps to combat illegal immigration.
The government of Mexico on Thursday issued an “emphatic rejection” of the barrier, which also has met opposition from U.S. towns and cities along the border. They fear it could hurt local economies and create ill will with neighboring communities in Mexico.
The bill calls for three sections of fencing in Texas: a 51-mile stretch from Del Rio to Eagle Pass; 176 miles from Laredo to Brownsville; and 88 miles stretching from El Paso westward to Columbus, N.M. The largest single section would run 361 miles from Calexico, Calif., to Douglas, Ariz. A 10-mile section is planned near San Diego.
About 75 miles of fencing is currently on the southern border, primarily in populous areas known for smuggling or illegal-immigrant traffic.
