CNN/AP: Bush OKs 700-mile U.S.-Mexico fence in signing ceremony

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush OKs 700-mile U.S.-Mexico fence
October 26, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.

"Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise," Bush said at a signing ceremony....

***

The measure Bush put into law Thursday before heading for campaign stops in Iowa and Michigan offers no money for the fence project covering one-third of the 2,100-mile border.

Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.

Mexican officials have criticized the fence. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the fence "shameful" and compares it to the Berlin Wall....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/26/bush.immigration.ap/index.html

[liberalmuse]

1. What a disgrace.

Bush has completely ruined everything "America" was supposed to be, and this is the final nail in the coffin.

[bdamomma]

18. is that fence for the illegals or to keep us in???????????????

[goforit]

21. Indeed, It is to keep us in.

[bananas]

2. The Great Wall of Dubya? The Bush Curtain?

What will historians call it?

[VC2]

5. tortilla curtain

12000 years + of Mexican indigenous migrations and this idiot builds a wall to stop us?

LoL

[bdamomma]

20. Welcome to DU VC2, does anyone think a "wall" will keep illegals out??

not me.

[Hugin]

9. Boooshes Dyke.

Somewhere, way back in my Journal I ask that very question.

[VC2]

3. jerk

i was hoping for a pocket veto

[HereSince1628]

4. I expect the fence contracts to be almost pure pork and the fence

not a very effective curb on illegal immigration.

But Fox's comment fails in as much as the Berlin wall was meant to keep people _in_ not keep people out.

The RW agenda of securing the homeland is much more like the Nazi program than the Communist East Germans. Why doesn't Fox point out THAT?

[VC2]

6. i dont think he can call "americans" nazis

i think the comparison to the berlin wall works

[havocmom]

8. Tunnels were found years ago. Fences? HA!

Drug lords with bucks build nice concrete tunnels they can drive trucks through. Go into a garage south of the border, come out of one near Douglas, AZ. It's already been done, discovered, filled in and probably built anew somewhere else.

Fences? :rofl:

All fences do is make big fence builders richer. Just another money siphon.

Cheaper to round up illegal EMPLOYERS, like that GOP candidate in Nevada for starters.

[HereSince1628]

16. Tunnels, ports, coastlines, poorly controlled border crossings...

There are lots of ways to get into the country that the fence will not counter. And the fence isn't gonna stop those nasty illegal _Irish_ immigrants in today's news.

[Hugin]

11. On the bright side... If KBR builds it like they did everything in Iraq.

It'll fall down in a couple of years anyhow.

Also, I'm willing to bet a dollar to a doughnut Halliburton will use Illegal Aliens
to build it to pad their margin.

[Virginia Dare]

7. No problemo...

More manufacturing companies, especially the food processors, will just move south of the border, either that, or shrubby will give them the secret password so they can get their slave labor through the gates.

[rsmith6621]

10. Did he attach a signing statement to.....

....stay the course on signing statements.....

[olddad56]

12. Building a fence over the tunnels is just brilliant.

[0007]

13. Hmmm......

Will fencing out illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico solve the U.S. immigration problem?

Yes 16% 23972 votes

No 84% 122,483 votes
Total: 146455 votes

[rodeodance]

14. I read the majority of people do NOT want this fence. It is NOT built

yes, and if people protest, or whatever, it can be stopped.

[AlGore-08.com]

15. Their politics are never about the majority, they're about the GOP base

The reason for this is because some many Congressional seats are Gerrymandered - - according to Krugman it takes the Dems at least a 7% lead to pull even in most districts. So (their theory goes) all the GOP has to do is keep enough of their base voting and the Dems will never win.

During Presidential years they play these odds with swing states as well - - knowing that all they have do is depress our vote by a few points and keep their base vote in place. (They can and sometimes do depress our vote legitimately - - by successfully smearing our candidates so that Dem voters don't want to vote for either candidate in the race.)

[Lexingtonian]

25. the actual legislation

is so full of procedural barriers and restrictions and vagueness, plus it's intentionally misfunded (i.e. the contractors will just soak most of the money and build very little due to footdragging on the inspections and permits), that the money is going to run out long before anything like 700 miles are built. The middle estimate I've read of is 120 to 150 miles, mostly placed for visibility from the US side.

The Mexican government is putting up formal protests so as not to give the game away, but it's a complete certainty that they've been assured by Rove and Cheney that it's all an election year ploy that essentially just doles money out to the right people and puts up some chain link where clueless gringo voters are upset there isn't any. The Mexican government protests are transparently lame and don't have seriousness behind them- it would be very different if the border were actually about to be sealed.

Of course the people being played for fools are, as always, the Republican 'base'.

[Atmashine]

17. 700 miles! Quick make a 10 ft. ladder!

Oh no's a scary, scary fence to secure our border.

[habitual]

19. And in other news: Halliburton launches new fence building unit n/t

[Az_lefty]

22. perfect symbolism for that paranoid little bastard...

[woodsprite]

23. Guess he's gonna force them to use the NAFTA super highway. n/t

[Justyce]

24. I thought he was all for giving them

amnesty... and now he wants to build a fence to keep them out?? What have I missed - which is it? :crazy:

[Rambis]

26. Cheap illegal labor will build it you watch-

scum bag * and his cronies will pocket big $-

[aggiesal]

27. This is a bill designed to appease the immigration hardliners ...

Notice that the bill only authorizes the building of the fence along 700 miles.
It doesn't say that the government will fund it. Only that the fence can be
built.

Its cost is not known... DHS was given $1.2B, but they don't have to use
this money on the fence.

This is like that "No child's behind left" bill. Mandates test levels but no
$$$$'s to get those test levels.