Former Presidential Candidate Reintroduces Secure Fence Act
Thursday, January 24, 2008
By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) reintroduced the Secure Fence Act Wednesday, which requires the construction of double-layered fencing along America's Southern land border within six months.
"Securing our Southern land border remains one of our nation's greatest priorities," said Hunter, who dropped out of the presidential race on Saturday.
"When the Secure Fence Act was enacted more than one year ago, the American people were pleased to see that the necessary steps were finally being taken to secure the dangerous and problematic smuggling corridors that exist along our border with Mexico," he said.
"Instead of adhering to the law and building the prescribed fencing, the Department of Homeland Security began to immediately retreat from the mandates of the bill, indicating its intention to only build 370 miles of fence and not the required 700 miles," he said.
When President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act in October 2006, he called it "an important step in our nation's efforts to secure our border and reform our immigration system."
Hunter noted that recent provisions in the omnibus spending bill "eliminated the most substantive provisions of the Secure Fence Act, including the requirement that fencing be double-layered and extend 700 miles across our Southern land border."
"Today, DHS has built approximately 75 miles of new fence along the border, of which only 5 miles is double-layered," Hunter said in a statement.
"The Secure Fence Act was clear in that it required double-layered fencing, separated by a road for Border Patrol vehicles, extending over 700 miles of land border. Yet DHS continues to believe that single-layered fencing, vehicle barriers, and virtual fencing are adequate and reliable enforcement mechanisms," he added.
v"The reality is that single-layered fencing and vehicle barriers do little, if anything, to stop illegal immigration and the virtual alternative being aggressively pursued by DHS remains ineffective and unusable," Hunter said.
But Michele Waslin, a senior policy analyst with the Immigration Policy Center, remained skeptical of the legislation.
"Nobody thought it would work when they passed it the last time," she told Cybercast News Service. "Recycling an old bill shows a real lack of creativity and practicality."
"The American people want real solutions - not throwing more money at the same old ineffective deportation-only approach," she said.
Jim Gilchrist, president of the Minuteman Project, however, welcomed the bill.
"I think reintroducing the bill will allow the electorate to participate," he told Cybercast News Service. "We're going to watch this a lot closer" this election cycle.
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