Democrats Want to Stop Border Fence

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said the House will reconsider a plan to build a fence along the southwestern border between Mexico and the United States.

“I think the fence will be revisited,” Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday. “Appropriators will look at whether or not this is an expenditure that continues to make sense to them or whether there are other ways” to address the problem of illegal immigration.

Hoyer echoed the sentiments of Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who said last week that he wanted to delay construction of the fence until Congress passes a broad border security plan.

The GOP-led Congress passed the fence bill last year (PL 109-367) in an effort to prevent illegal aliens from crossing into the United States. But the fence plan, estimated to cost $50 billion, is not popular even with the Bush administration, never mind the Democrats.

The fence was initially planned to be 700 miles long, but those estimates proved to be too short — by about 154 miles — to reach "point to point," according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the original sponsor of the fence bill.

"The objective would be, as we move forward, to secure the border,” Hoyer said. “There has not been agreement that the fence is the best way to do it.”