Fenced In

The House has voted to approve a fence along nearly 700 miles of the US border with Mexico. The House GOP is putting border security first, ahead of the amnesty or guest worker plans.

The Republican-written bill, approved on a vote of 283-138, calls for construction of about 700 miles of fence along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Democratic opponents said the measure was a charade designed to help Republicans ahead of the November 7 elections.

"This is to score political points that are going to be demagogued in 30-second ads," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat. He accused Republicans of trying to appeal to the "fears and passions" of people. He and other Democrats called for a broad immigration overhaul along the lines of the bill passed by the U.S. Senate that would create a guest worker program and legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

President George W. Bush backs comprehensive legislation and a guest worker program and spoke about the need for it during a meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol on Thursday. But the issue divides Republicans. Many feel the Senate bill would grant amnesty to people who broke U.S. law and it is unlikely a broad immigration bill will pass this year.

A combination plan - comprising both guest worker plans and border security in one package doesn't appear workable because it effectively provides amnesty for some number of those illegal aliens who are in the United States illegally. The current proposals do not adequately address the issue, and yet every day we see thousands of people crossing the border into the US illegally.

Address the borders first, and deal with the issue of amnesty or guest worker programs once Congress has shown that it can deal with the more crucial issue of border control and national security. By using the issue of guest workers/amnesty, nothing is getting done to address national security. The perfect is the enemy of the workable. A border fence proposal is a good first step, and it might not get done because politicians on both sides of the aisle - including President Bush - wants to tack the guest worker program to it.

President Bush should reverse his position on the idea of a comprehensive package and instead support the House proposal and get it done. A fence, even one that only covers about one-third of the border with Mexico would be a vast improvement over the current situation and help improve national security. It would also enable ICE the ability to get a handle on the numbers of illegal aliens already in the US and deal with them better than they have to date - which is to say not at all.

Technorati: bush, illegal alien, illegal immigration, border control, immigration