Posted on 11/04/2005 3:15:35 PM PST by HHKrepublican_2
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to build a 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) wall along the US border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out. ADVERTISEMENT
The legislation aims to "create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico," said House of Representatives members Duncan Hunter of California and Virgil Goode of Virginia in a statement.
"Prior to September 11, 2001, illegal immigration was considered a regional issue without national implications. We quickly learned on that day, however, that this is a national issue, affecting each and every American, not just those living in border communities like San Diego County," Hunter said.
Their True Enforcement and Border Security Act would also "authorize thousands of new border patrol officers, immigration investigators, attorneys and immigration judges," they said.
Hunter told CNN it was important to identify who crosses the border and who helps them do it, adding that four North Koreans were among those arrested trying to enter the US illegally in the past few months.
About the cost and difficulty of building a wall along the entire border with Mexico, Hunter simply said: "It's a simple construction."
While Hunter assured skeptics that a fence would work in keeping out unwanted immigrants, pointing to a successful 22-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of fence near San Diego, California, other Republican lawmakers were not so sure.
Representative Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), of Arizona, was quoted as saying in Friday's issue of The Washington Times that a fence would not work for half of the 400,000 immigrants that enter the United States every year and overstay their legal entry visas.
While the administration of Republican President George W. Bush has vowed to do more to enforce the borders.
It was unclear whether the fence building bill would receive sufficient support to pass in both houses of Congress.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Tuesday announced that 1,000 additional border guards would be recruited to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants.
Two weeks ago, Chertoff said his goal was to deport all illegal aliens caught crossing the border.
The conservative Washington Times newspaper on Friday said Republican lawmakers were also considering a bill ending birthright citizenship, or jus soli, which is a right granted under the US constitution.
"There is a general agreement about the fact that citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are the children of folks who come into this country illegally," said Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
A group of Republican lawmakers trying to find consensus on immigration is studying whether the issue of jus soli would require a constitutional amendment or a congressional statute.
A constitutional amendment would require approval by three fourths of the 50 US states, a very difficult undertaking. The last amendment, the 27th, establishing congressional pay increases was passed in 1992.
Just salt the area between the first and second walls with
mines. Or just SAY we did.
Even better, assist Mexico to implement full, general private property rights immediately. People don't leave their homes they own and don't leave their businesses they own legally. That's capitalism, the source of freedom and democracy, which seems like a foreign language these days. Funny.
The lawns in my town will be just fine too.
You can build the wall but they will still come for jobs even if they have to tunnel under. Stiff fines on employers would dry up the invitation to come.
GMTA. The first thing that came to mind, on reading this thread. Jurassic Park.
Land mines would stop it cold. But their is no way we would ever do something like that.
I'm guessing you don't live in CA do you?
Long before 9/11 this was never a terrorism problem, but an economic one. Our schools are overrun, and our Emergency Rooms are shutting down.
So you want to aid and abet CRIMINAL INVADERS.
Only criminals aid and abet other criminals.
"They'll find common ground. We'll end up with a wall that runs from sea-to-sea, but it's only 1-ft. tall."
Thanks, I needed a good laugh.
Stating the obvious, the only reason to have border guards without walls or fences is so that security remains ineffective.
I know you know, but just felt the need to state it so that THEY KNOW we know. Ya know?
Wall, schmall. A lot of good a wall will do. When I lived in El Paso, one could see illegals scaling a thirty-foot high gate on the railroad bridge spanning the Rio Grande -- in plain sight of Border Patrol agents. These were mostly young men on their way to their jobs in El Paso, and they were taking quite a risk of falling to a sure death or lifelong crippling.
A wall, regardless of how much our paid time-wasters in D.C. tout it, will do absolutely no good until the people in charge have the actual WILL to stop the flow. That will not happen as long as the worthless members of congress, and our president, continue to pander for votes from this new bloc of voters.
Next we'll see some grandstanding POS in congress call for a "War on Illegal Immigration". It will be every bit as successful as LBJ's War on Poverty, and the so-called War on Drugs, unless we begin to send a strong message to those that are paid to look out for our interests that we are not going to stand for this invasion any longer.
The best, strongest, message we can send to Washington is to work for the defeat of EVERY incumbent in that cesspool of greed. I'm not holding my breath.
...."electrify the wall."
And put land mines in the areas between walls. Put plenty of signs warning illegals that they cross at their own risk.
...."electrify the wall."
And put land mines in the areas between walls. Put plenty of signs warning illegals that they cross at their own risk.
Split the fine with citizens that turn in offenders and the problem would be solved overnight.
EXCELLENT plan!
So you refer to them as "dirty Mexicans". Have you always felt this way about Mexicans? By the way, about one million illegal aliens, many of them other-than-Mexicans, come over our southern border each year. I'm sorry to hear that you're not the least bit concerned about this massive amount of lawbreraking.
I can't view the Minute Men projects as anything more than xenophobia until I see them out patrolling that long stretch of Canadian border.
Do you feel that the 47% of Hispanic voters who voted in favor of the anti-illegal alien measure Prop 200 in Arizona last year are a bunch of xenophobes?
A wall won't work. People will always find a way in. Totally stupid idea.
heh waste of money.
Yes he did. Needs to be a NYT Best Seller:
"Camp of the Saints"
The predictions have come true.
If they wanted to really do something all they have to do is enforce the laws on the books.
If something bad enough happens you watch they can stop the flow, start rounding up and shipping out those illegals that don't start running for the border in a matter of a few days and weeks.
The sad thing is that's what it's going to take and the blood is going to be on the hands of this administration.
We've already had 9/11 to lay at the feet previous leaders including President Clinton, his Democratic comrades and the Republican congress, everything after 9/11 belongs to President Bush and this Republican Congress.
What about each state protecting its own border? Build a wall if they want, have state National Guard troops to patrol, electric fences, anything their minds can think of to stop the flow of ILLEGAL immigrants.
Could just about guarantee that the citizens & representatives of each border state would get it done a lot sooner than Congress.
Do the states not have any powers to protect their borders?
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