Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, praised the Department of Homeland Security following its April 1 decision to waive certain federal laws in order to build hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.“I applaud the Administration and the Department for recognizing the importance of moving forward with this fence. The American people demand that our borders be secured and this decision will go a long way toward accomplishing that. You just have to stop this kind of open traffic along the border," Bilbray said.
The department's decision will allow it to slash through a thicket of environmental and cultural laws. One waiver applies to certain environmental and land management laws for various project areas in Calif., Ariz., N.M., and Texas, encompassing roughly 470 total miles. It will facilitate additional pedestrian and vehicle fence construction, towers, sensors, cameras, detection equipment, and roads in the vicinity of the border.
A separate waiver was signed for the levee-border barrier project in Hidalgo County, Texas. The 22-mile project will strengthen flood protection in the area while providing the Border Patrol with important tactical infrastructure. In addition to environmental and land management laws, this waiver addresses other legal and administrative impediments to completing the project by the end of 2008.
Congress gave Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff the power to waive federal requirements in order to build the fence quickly. Since construction began, the department has faced opposition from local communities and has had to go to court against more than 50 property owners simply to survey land to determine whether it is suitable for a fence. The department has so far built just 309 miles of fence.
This is good news. If you put aside the immigration issues, and completely forget about them for a minute the real issue with our borders and the reason for a comprehensive border control program becomes crystal clear.
ReplyDeleteIf a guy can get in here to pick tomatoes and be invisible, so can a terrorist cell or group of professional foreign operatives.
With the current state of our borders we could easily have a small army of suicide squads in every major city and not even know about it until 0day.
They could all use those phones you buy at 7-11 and be completely invisible with excellent communication capability.
If we don't close our borders and get serious about this, the next event will make 9/11 seem small.
I think it's great you run this blog to raise awareness. This issue concerns and troubles me deeply, as it should all US Citizens.
-Neil
Well if you want to leave out the immigration issues, I think you will agree with me that we need to start building a fence across the northern United States boarder. After that we can work on Alaska. Thank God the Indians did not have a fence up to stop the white man from invading this land! I guess we where just lucky. A fence is a step towards war and hostility.
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