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Bush signs bill to build US/Mexico fence

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Suffice:
http://blog.politicalnonsense.com/2006/10/05/main/bush-signs-bill-to-build-mexico-border-fence/

President Bush signed a law to build a border fence along the US-Mexico border. The fence will be hundreds of miles long and cost about 6 billion dollars. "It's what the people of this country want," Bush said.

The President held a signing ceremony Wednesday in Arizona.

President Bush:

"The bill I sign today includes nearly $1.2 billion in additional funding for strengthening the border, for new infrastructure and technology that will help us do our job. It provides funding for more border fencing, vehicle barriers and lighting, for cutting-edge technology - including ground-based radar, infrared cameras and advanced sensors — that will help prevent illegal crossings along our southern border. It's what the people of this country want."

Under the bill, the number of border patrol agents will increase by 50 per cent to 18,000 by 2008, and sophisticated equipment will be added to help spot unlawful crossers, including ground base radar, infrared cameras and advance sensors.

An additional 6,700 new beds will be added to detention centres. Currently, many illegal immigrants are arrested but sent away with a court date because there is no place to hold them.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the US.

An estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested last year trying to cross into the US along the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Supporters of the fence have said it will be a crucial tool to fight illegal immigration - which is expected to be a key issue in November's mid-term elections. Coming less than five weeks before the November 7 congressional elections, the measure gives Bush's beleaguered Republican Party a badly needed issue to please its conservative base and motivate supporters.

The centre-right Republicans are at risk of losing their majorities in both chambers of Congress to the centre-left Democrats, partly out of disaffection with the war in Iraq.

The barrier will affect all four US states bordering Mexico. Even if the legislation's double fencing is constructed as written before 2009 along nearly the entire Arizona border, most of the New Mexico border and parts of the frontier California and Texas, nearly 2,000 kilometres of the US-Mexican border would remain unsecured. Critics of the scheme say it will force illegal immigrants to cross somewhere else.

Mexico has also said the fence will badly affect relations with the US.

The Mexican government strongly opposes the fence, saying it will lead to more deaths and injuries for those who come into the United States through dangerous terrain. Outgoing Mexican President, Vicente Fox, has called the fence shameful, and compared it to the Berlin Wall.

The bill only authorizes 1.2 billion dollars for what is expected to be a 6-billion-dollar project.
bbc
monsters and critics
democracynow

everlast1986:
Too bad it will take them many years to build that. More mexicans that want to cross will have guns on them now and the Mexican government will fuck more shit up for us.

Dubz:
too costly
too time-consuming
economically costly

bush continues to maintain his poor judgement.

virtuoso:

This sounds suspiciously to me like a very cynical political move towin the votes of the disillusioned conservative voters, it's not the first time he has played this smoke and mirrors trick, after all just think back to the declaration that he would militarise the border, well those 10,000 tropps never did materialise. I believe there is absolutely no intention of building this fence, CAFTA has absolutely no interest in preserving the sovereignty of the United States it wants open borders and as this wonderful North American Union is now beginning to emerge from the shadows, then people should stop being naive. It will just another European Union completely destroying the borders and sovereignty. The whole bill is phony bullshit plus even if it did get constructed it is a 700 mile mile fence and the border is 2000 miles, do you really think that is going to put illegal immigrants off? No of course it will not it will just force them to go further around Why this incessant need to play down these moves as poorly judged decisions, there is nothing poorly judged about it, if it tricks the disillusioned then it's a clever political move, there is nothing poorly judged about it.

J Bananas:
i say just expand the minutemen project ten fold and send food and equipment to volunteers every once and a while to show government support. and authorize lethal force  8)

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