The Daily Caller — The new border bills drafted by Republican leaders require the actual removal of at least 66 miles of weak border fencing between laborers in Mexico and employers in the United States.
The border bills also only require for the construction of 27 miles of effective double-layer fencing along the 2,000-mile border.
“It is a remarkable that the direction of our progress is going backwards, from a goal of building 700 miles of double-layer border fencing [in 2006] to only 27 miles [in 2015],” said a Hill staffer who opposes the leaders’ bills.
“Where the double-layer fence has been put in, it has worked spectacularly. The public is with us 80, 90 percent on this issue,” he added.
Extra fencing would be a waste of money, according to Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
“The bill matches resources to needs, putting 27 more miles of fencing where fencing is needed, and technology where technology is needed,” said the statement.
“In our conversations with outside groups, experts and stakeholders, we learned that it would be an inefficient use of taxpayer money to complete the fence. … We are using that money to utilize other technology to create a secure border,” said the statement.
A House staffer said the McCaul’s bill doesn’t require a major fence because of advocacy by Heritage and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.
Dan Holler, communications director for Heritage Action for America, told The Daily Caller that Heritage did not recommend against fencing.
Senate committee staffers declined to offer any reassurances that Senators would modify the bill to fund more fencing and to block Obama’s catch-and-release policy, prior to a Senate vote in a few weeks.
“We’re going to be looking at everything,” said a committee staffer. “We can’t give any detail beyond that.”
The Senate bill is co-sponsored by Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who co-sponsored the Senate’s 2013 immigration bill.
“We introduced the McCaul [House] bill [in the Senate] as is and plan to update and improve it as we study the issue through [House] briefings and hearings,” said the staffer, who works for the Senate’s homeland security committee. The committee is chaired by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
The public strongly supports a border fence. An April 2013 poll by Rasmussen shows “that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States should continue building a border fence, while 29% disagree.” Support for the fence is much higher among the GOP-leaning voters that provided the votes for the GOP victory in November.
A 2006 law required the construction of 700 miles of double-layer fencing along the 2,000 mile border. However, Congress quietly modified the bill in 2008 to allow the construction of simple, ineffective fences in place of the required double-layer fencing.
Officials claim that just over 600 miles of the border now have obstructions, including barriers. But those barriers include lines of bollards to stop vehicles, plus single-layer “landing mat fencing” and only 36.5 miles of double-layer fencing.
The leaders’ bills call for the replacement of anti-pedestrian mat fences by anti-vehicle bollards.
The bollards will allow migrants to be driven up to the border, and then walked over to a pick-up vehicle on the U.S. side.
“Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall replace, at a minimum, each of the following: (A) Thirty-one miles of landing mat fencing with bollard style fencing in the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector. (B) Five miles of landing mat fencing with bollard style fencing in the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector. (C) Three miles of landing mat fencing with bollard style fencing in the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector. (D) Twenty-five miles of landing mat fencing with bollard style fencing in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector. (E) Two miles of landing mat fencing with bollard style fencing in the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector,” says a section on page 12 of the House bill, HR 399.
This is TOTALY ASSININE AT ITS BEST! SCREW THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ON THERE WANTING ALL THESE ILLEGAL DISEASE IGNORANT PEOPLE IN TO HAVE DOUBLE CHEAP LABOR! THE DESTRUCTION OF ONCE GREAT AND POWERFULL COUNTRY!
The GOP isn’t called “The Stupid Party” for nothing. They’d better think the bill through. We, the People want the border secured. We, the People didn’t vote FOR the Stupid Party. We, the People voted AGAINST President Obozo, and his liberal/socialist/Democrat (LSD)/RINO Congressional coalition. As spectacular as the GOP victory in November was, if they drop the ball on the critical issue of National Security, so will their loss be in the next election. Dimwits!
Apparently both parties now do the will of their bosses THE CORPORATIONS!
Doing what they can do to destroy the U.S. and it’s citizens. You are aware of the flyers at the ILLEGAL
protest in Santa Barbara
called for “abolish whiteness”. These are the same people calling Americans racists!
They are not stupid at all. They are doing what is best for their pocketbooks.
That may be, but if they’re “doing what’s best for their pocketbooks,” does it not follow that staying in the majority would be a major help? We, the People gave them a mandate to stop Obozo and his LSD/RINO allies. They’ve either forgotten the platforms on which they ran, or they don’t know how to do it. That’s not how to stay in the majority.
As Union soldiers, talking about their officers during the Civil War used to say, “They ain’t fit to pour pee out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.” It’s not hard to understand exactly how they felt.
The government will spend trillions on wars we do not want.
They will give billions a year to other countries, to build their military and build a democracy.
But they will not spend the money to secure our borders and enforce our illegal alien laws.
Our government has barrowed trillions a year, why haven’t they spent that money on Americans?
Securing our borders with wind turbine electrified fences, run enough juice so it will not hurt animals but enough to stop a person. Give Americans a cash reward for turning in illegals, and companies who hire them. I bet if illegals and companies had a bounty on their head we would not have a illegal problem. As for the illegals with American children this would force them to register with the government or be evicted.
As long as both government parties believe we need illegals to boost our economy nothing will change.
Prisoners and the able on welfare could do the jobs the illegals are doing, Panhandlers work harder than these people.
Interesting how our laws state a person can be made whole, but they can not be made better than what they were on someone else’s dime.
Let’s say someone crashes into your ten year old parked car and totals it, at best the judge will give you blue book of your car. The judge will not make the other guy buy you a bran new car, the judge is giving you back what you lost no more no less.
Why doesn’t this apply to illegals, the able on welfare and prisoners?