DeMint Introduces “Complete the Fence Act"

Senator Jim DeMint's Office ^ | March 5th, 2008 | Senator Jim DeMint

[K-oneTexas]

DeMint Introduces “Complete the Fence Act"
Sets 2010 Deadline for Completion of 700 Miles of Physical, Pedestrian Fencing on Southern Border

March 5th, 2008 - Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) introduced the “Complete the Fence Act” that will require the completion of 700 miles of reinforced pedestrian fencing along the nation’s southern border by December 31, 2010. The bill also requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to report to Congress by June 2009 on fence construction progress and how it plans to complete the full fence by the 2010 deadline.

“Americans demand a secure border and the first step is to complete the fence,” said Senator DeMint. “Our nation’s borders are fundamental to our national security and our sovereignty, and we can’t delay any longer. If we want to have a legal immigration system that works, we must have a secure border so we know who is entering and leaving the United States.”

In September 2006, Congress overwhelmingly passed and the President signed a bill that required 700 miles of reinforced fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The “Complete the Fence Act” will require DHS to complete the 700 miles fence by December 31, 2010, using only reinforced pedestrian fencing, not vehicle barriers or “virtual” fencing.

In direct conflict with the requirements set by Congress in 2006, DHS Secretary Chertoff has recently attempted to count vehicle barriers that stand only a few feet high and can easily be walked around as part of total fencing completed. DHS claims to have completed 302 miles of fencing by counting 134 miles of vehicle barriers. DHS has actually only completed 167 miles of physical, pedestrian fencing.

Last week, at a U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee hearing, U.S. Border Patrol officials admitted that the “virtual fencing”, which was to account for nearly 300 miles of the 700 mile fence, is not working as promised and will not be operational for at least 3 more years. The technology encountered numerous problems that included: software integration, synching cameras with the radar systems, trouble identifying objects among desert trees, rain interference, and easy targets for drug traffickers to disable.

“Border security cannot wait any longer and we cannot depend on failed virtual fencing or vehicle barriers that won’t stop pedestrians,” said Senator DeMint. “We must keep our promise to America and build a real fence to secure our borders immediately.”

“Over half a million new illegal immigrants enter our nation every year. But this is more than an immigration problem. The southern border is where the majority of cocaine is smuggled in, and where heroin, marijuana and crystal meth flood into our country. It’s where the disgusting and immoral practice of human trafficking happens, with thousands of people sold into modern day slavery and prostitution. And most importantly, the border is a national security threat that leaves America vulnerable to terrorists and weapons of mass destruction,” said Senator DeMint.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: The nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about 850,000 illegal immigrants enter the U.S. each year.

TERRORISM: The Office of National Drug Control Policy released an unclassified counternarcotics strategy for the southwest border in 2007, stating: “Since the events of September 11, 2001, the Southwest Border has assumed even greater significance. The threat of terrorism looms large wherever criminals regularly exploit gaps in homeland security. Terrorists could conceivably attempt to enter the United States or smuggle weapons of mass destruction (WMD) across the Southwest Border by utilizing routes and methods established by drug and alien smugglers.”

DRUG SMUGGLING: According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 65% of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. comes through across the Mexican border. DEA also reports that large amounts of heroin, crystal meth and marijuana are routinely smuggled at the southern border.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING: The U.S. State Department estimates “about 17,000 people are being "trafficked" from Mexico into the United States each year. That number includes migrant workers, and women and children brought into the United States for purposes of commercial and sexual exploitation.”

 

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[kc8ukw]

Congress.org makes it easy to send emails to any applicable official, if anyone needs contact info.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[ronnie raygun]

get er done NOW! or you will all be looking for a real job come election day!

[Retired Greyhound]

wow, DeMintt is certainly becoming the standard bearer for conservatives.

Thanks goodness. We need a voice.

[nuconvert]

bump

[org.whodat]

Election year rope-a-dope!!!

[opus86]

bump

[Vigilanteman]

I rank Jim DeMint and Jeff Sessions the best one-two punch in the U.S. Senate. You may argue about the order, but not their credentials.

Now my question is how can a state who elects someone as good as Jim DeMint still elect someone as bad as Lindsey Graham?

[TexasCajun]

Build our fence Senator Kay Bailey Hutchenson & Gov. Rick Perry!!

These are our two MeCain Republicans here in Texas holding up progress!

[Travis McGee]

"Border Reality 101"

This is what most of our southern border looks like: there is no government-built fence at all. There is often just whatever is left over from some forgotten cattle fence, built privately to keep U.S. cattle from wandering freely into Mexico. For hundreds of miles there is not even a broken cattle fence, there is nothing at all.

For comparison, below the broken cattle fence photo is a sample of an inexpensive but highly effective double border fence system, with a plowed strip to reveal footprints. This type of system is very cheap and can be built with great speed.

Here is what some of San Diego County has: a wall made of rusty Viet Nam-era runway mats. The corrugations are even horizontal, (to make climbing easier?)

Here is what the border looks like where the runway mat wall exists. Mexico begins on the other side of the ineffective rusty wall, which actually helps the smugglers, by hiding their movements until the occasional USBP vehicle has driven out of sight.

This is how "the game" is played. Smugglers hide on the other side of the wall with their dope and/or their illegals, out of sight of the USBP. They wait for the highly visible white BP vehicle to drive over the distant hills. Lookouts with cell phones and walkie-talkies report on the current locations of the BP units. They know with certainty that "the coast is clear" for an hour or two, and the smugglers and illegals hop the fence and run into the scrub only 50 yards away. From there, they are out of sight, and they walk 1-2 miles to holding houses. Then they wait for nightfall, and are picked up and driven in vans to LA or San Diego.

Next, we see the Duncan Hunter 15' fence, which is already being built along a few "showplace" miles of San Diego, mainly near the ports of entry, where panderng politicians can conveniently show it off to gullible reporters. As you can see, the rusty runway wall is seen at the left side, Mexico begins on the other side. In areas with the 15 foot fence, dope smugglers and illegals will have to cross the open sand ("the government road" as it is called) before starting to try to get over the 15 foot fence.

This new fence is extremely tough, and resists cutting. Attacking the fence would have to be done right out in the open, in full view of cameras. This type of fence, on the U.S. side of the government road, will give the USBP a barrier to patrol, instead of forcing them to chase illegals around 100,000 square miles of wide-open frontier land, which is a fool's errand. Everywhere this modern multiple fence system has been built, crossings by illegals drop to almost nil.

This ain't rocket science, folks. We're not talking about something like the Hoover Dam project, (which we managed to build 70 years ago). The world's last superpower, which put a man on the moon 35 years ago, can build a couple thousand miles of simple and effective fencing.

This is how it's being built in San Diego county, along the last 14 miles out to the ocean. The total cost of the entire fence from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific would be about 5 billion dollars, or what we spend medicating, hospitalizing, educating, and incarcerating illegal aliens just about every month. In other words, the fence would pay for itself immediately.

Or, we can continue our current policy.

[thulldud]

Now my question is how can a state who elects someone as good as Jim DeMint still elect someone as bad as Lindsey Graham?

He wasn't like that when we voted him in. At the time, if you don't remember, his unblemished resume included being one of the House managers preferring the impeachment charges against DIRTXPOTUS.

Short version: somebody turned him.

Witherspoon for Senate!

[AuntB]

“Short version: somebody turned him.”

Somebody? Couldn’t be his buddy John McCain, could it?

[HiJinx]

Fence Lesson Ping!

[HiJinx]

Buddies? John and Lindsay?
Nah, that couldn’t be.
Could it? /sarc

[Dante3]

Could Lindsay be blackmailed? Or does he have a thing for illegal aliens?

[azhenfud]

"Now my question is how can a state who elects someone as good as Jim DeMint still elect someone as bad as Lindsey Graham?"

IMO, Graham is basically good - but followed the President's cue on the Amnesty fiasco probably hearing more of the noise of Washington than listening to the constituents back home.

(to the tune of "Yellow Sumbarine")

"We're all victims of the Washington machine, the Washington machine, the Washington machine. We're all victims of the Washington machine, the Washington machine, the Washington machine.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Now my question is how can a state who elects someone as good as Jim DeMint still elect someone as bad as Lindsey Graham?"

I am not one of those voters, but I tend to believe that Lindsey Graham was a whole lot more conservative way back when. I used to hold quite a bit of respect for what he had to say. Now it pains me to listen to him, but I have to so that I know what the dark side is up to.

[NoLibZone]

Aren’t citizens in Ca, Tx and Az fighting the building of ths fence in courts?

[Ron H.]

Election year rope-a-dope!!!