Hope You Liked The Idea Of A Border Fence While It Lasted
Because it’s pretty much not going to be built now that the Democrats are in charge.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI)—The incoming U.S. Congress will review the law mandating 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and may seek to scrap the plan altogether.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters this week that he expected to “re-visit” the issue when he becomes chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in the 110th Congress, which has a Democratic Party majority.
He said that the high technology Secure Border Initiative, or SBI Net—essentially a set of monitors, cameras and other integrated surveillance systems to monitor the border—was a viable alternative.
“We might do away with it, or look at (integrating it into) SBI Net,” he said, “A virtual fence rather than a real one.”
And, of course, the White House would be all too happy to see it go…
The Secure Fence Act, one of the laws passed by the GOP-controlled Congress in a pre-election flurry of border security legislation, mandates 700 miles of fencing in five sections, and defines where on the 1,951-mile southern border they should go.
As a result, some administration officials view it as an example of congressional micro-management, and might welcome changes that gave them more flexibility.
Does anyone ever get the idea that, at least when it comes to the immigration issue, the White House was all too happy to see Democrats take charge? Especially given these comments from Tony Snow.
I’m not especially surprised by this. The fence was only ever, at most, a gesture. Meaningful if it was backed by strong domestic enforcement (such as empowering local law enforcement to detain illegal immigrants, fast deportation, etc.) and a refusal to reward those illegal immigrants who thumbed their noses at our democratically-passed immigration laws with any sort of amnesty or “path to citizenship.” As it is, it’s probably just as well we don’t build the fence. Without a President or a Congress willing to enforce immigration laws it wasn’t going to do us a lot of good anyway.
