House approves U.S.-Mexico border fence

[juang]

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4338492?source=rss



Article Last Updated: 9/14/2006 07:16 PM

nation | world
House approves U.S.-Mexico border fence

By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to build more than 700 miles of fences along the U.S. border with Mexico, as Republicans pushed their election-year strategy of repeatedly highlighting national security issues.

Lawmakers voted 283-138 for the double-layer fences. The legislation is almost identical to part of a larger House border-security bill that passed last December.

Opponents decried the vote as a pre-election stunt by Republicans who've refused to negotiate immigration reform with the Senate, which passed its own legislation in May.

Even proponents of the fences agreed that part of the motivation for Thursday's vote was to please voters.

"It's absolutely political, and I'm all for it," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, head of the House immigration caucus that wants tough enforcement of immigration laws.

While attempting to show voters they are strong on border security, Republicans also hope to paint Democrats as weak.

The bill passed with 64 Democrats joining 219 Republicans. That gave the bill a much wider margin of approval than the broader House measure that passed in December on a 239-182 vote. That bill included many provisions Democrats found objectionable, including making it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. That offense is now a civil violation.

House Republicans plan to force votes on other border security issues in the next two weeks. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., announced a long list of measures planned for action, including adding 1,200 Border Patrol and 1,212 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, expediting the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, and criminalizing the construction of tunnels under the border to smuggle immigrants.

The House wants to underscore the immigration issue and pressure the Senate to pass border-security provisions, Tancredo said. No bill in the Senate parallels the 700-mile-fence legislation passed in the House, but Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has proposed 370 miles of fencing.

A Senate leadership aide said there was a fair chance some fencing provision could be taken up in the next two weeks before Congress adjourns.

A comprehensive immigration-reform package like the bill approved by the Senate in May appears dead for the year, but "border security clearly is the one thing we're going to be able to address," the leadership aide said.

The Senate's bill would create a pathway to legal status for many illegal immigrants already in the U.S. as well as a guest-worker program for new immigrants. Those provisions are backed by President Bush but opposed by many House Republicans.

The House bill approved Thursday proposes fences along a stretch of border mostly in Arizona. Currently there is 75 miles of double fencing in southern California.

The bill does not allocate money for the fences, which Republicans say would cost $2 billion and Democrats charge would cost closer to $7 billion.

Colorado's U.S. House delegation split along party lines on the vote. Reps. Tancredo, Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, and Bob Beauprez, R-Arvada, voted for the bill. Reps. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, John Salazar, R-Manassa, and Diana DeGette, D-Denver, voted against.

"Instead of working with the Senate to find agreement on comprehensive immigration legislation, the Republicans would rather score political points," DeGette said.



This seems to be good. They get the fence, and we might get something back. Right?

[Nick]

Unless its on the same bill, same vote, I dont think we are getting squat. If they get everything they want without giving anything back then there is no incentive to give anything back ever.

[juang]

I know, but this still needs to go to the Senate and then to the white house. Im pretty sure they're not just gonna give them the fence without getting something back.

[hayire]

House republican majority leader John Boehner was in fox news sunday said that the house and senate are parleying over comprehensive immigration reform (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214207,00.html) and hinted that something may happen after the election.But in the meantime there are things you can do to seal the border.


WALLACE: Let's turn to the legislative agenda you've got for the next few weeks before Congress goes home to campaign. The House this week passed a measure to build a 700 mile-long fence along the Mexico border. But Senate leaders, including Republicans, continue to hold out for a comprehensive legislative package.

Question: Will some form of immigration reform end up on the president's desk before you go home at the end of this month?

BOEHNER: House Republicans believe that if we're going to have real immigration reform, the first step has to be to secure the borders. Anything after that is only going to invite another wave of illegal immigration.

Chairman Sensenbrenner, Chairman Specter and others have continued to work on a broader illegal immigration reform plan, and we're hopeful that they can come to some agreement. But in the meantime, House Republicans are going to continue to insist that we do everything possible to secure our borders.

We've made a lot of progress over the last five years. If you look at the number of incursions of our border over the last six months, those numbers are down significantly. We've got the National Guard down there. We've got a lot of new activity, more fences being built.

And what we want to do is to speed up the process of making sure that we have secure borders while we're working with the Senate to come up with a more comprehensive plan.

WALLACE: But what you're basically saying is you're going to hold to your guns on enforcement first. Meanwhile, you've got Republican senators like Arlen Specter and John McCain saying they want a comprehensive package.

If Republicans, with majorities in both houses, fail to come up with any legislation the president can sign this year on immigration reform, which I think we all agree is a big issue, isn't that a serious problem?

BOEHNER: I believe that we will have a piece of legislation that the president can sign this year. I'm not going to suggest to you whether it be before or after the election, because I don't know. But the fact is, is that House Republicans are going to stick to our guns to insist that we secure the border before we do anything else.

WALLACE: So you're saying that this bill that the president's going to get on his desk is going to be enforcement first?

BOEHNER: I didn't say that. I'm saying there are a lot of things we can do, we have been doing and will do. We've got the Homeland Security appropriations conference report coming up. We believe there are things that we can do in that bill that will be on the president's desk before the election that will help us better secure our border.



Those who are against any sort of legalization (http://www.kxma.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=41851) also believe that there will be compromised hammered out, keep it under wraps and vote on it after the election. If they win I guess.



But another part of me thinks that the Republicans are probably just putting off the guest worker/amnesty thing until after the elections when they can safely pass it without having to worry about being held accountable for it in an election right afterward.

[Ianus]

It seems that the Senate will be considering the Secure Fence act today that passed the House.There is also a summary (http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=20581) over at Aila.org concerning Sensenbrenners individual enforcement only bills that will be introduced in the House.