Bear-Arms
Mentor
US lawmakers want to wall up Mexico border
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to build a 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) wall along the US border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out.
The legislation aims to "create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico," said House of Representatives members Duncan Hunter of California and Virgil Goode of Virginia in a statement.
"Prior to September 11, 2001, illegal immigration was considered a regional issue without national implications. We quickly learned on that day, however, that this is a national issue, affecting each and every American, not just those living in border communities like San Diego County," Hunter said.
Their True Enforcement and Border Security Act would also "authorize thousands of new border patrol officers, immigration investigators, attorneys and immigration judges," they said.
Hunter told CNN it was important to identify who crosses the border and who helps them do it, adding that four North Koreans were among those arrested trying to enter the US illegally in the past few months.
About the cost and difficulty of building a wall along the entire border with Mexico, Hunter simply said: "It's a simple construction."
While Hunter assured skeptics that a fence would work in keeping out unwanted immigrants, pointing to a successful 22-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of fence near San Diego, California, other Republican lawmakers were not so sure.
Representative Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), of Arizona, was quoted as saying in Friday's issue of The Washington Times that a fence would not work for half of the 400,000 immigrants that enter the United States every year and overstay their legal entry visas.
While the administration of Republican
President George W. Bush has vowed to do more to enforce the borders.
It was unclear whether the fence building bill would receive sufficient support to pass in both houses of Congress.
Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff on Tuesday announced that 1,000 additional border guards would be recruited to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants.
Two weeks ago, Chertoff said his goal was to deport all illegal aliens caught crossing the border.
The conservative Washington Times newspaper on Friday said Republican lawmakers were also considering a bill ending birthright citizenship, or jus soli, which is a right granted under the US constitution.
"There is a general agreement about the fact that citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are the children of folks who come into this country illegally," said Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
A group of Republican lawmakers trying to find consensus on immigration is studying whether the issue of jus soli would require a constitutional amendment or a congressional statute.
A constitutional amendment would require approval by three fourths of the 50 US states, a very difficult undertaking. The last amendment, the 27th, establishing congressional pay increases was passed in 1992.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to build a 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) wall along the US border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out.
The legislation aims to "create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico," said House of Representatives members Duncan Hunter of California and Virgil Goode of Virginia in a statement.
"Prior to September 11, 2001, illegal immigration was considered a regional issue without national implications. We quickly learned on that day, however, that this is a national issue, affecting each and every American, not just those living in border communities like San Diego County," Hunter said.
Their True Enforcement and Border Security Act would also "authorize thousands of new border patrol officers, immigration investigators, attorneys and immigration judges," they said.
Hunter told CNN it was important to identify who crosses the border and who helps them do it, adding that four North Koreans were among those arrested trying to enter the US illegally in the past few months.
About the cost and difficulty of building a wall along the entire border with Mexico, Hunter simply said: "It's a simple construction."
While Hunter assured skeptics that a fence would work in keeping out unwanted immigrants, pointing to a successful 22-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of fence near San Diego, California, other Republican lawmakers were not so sure.
Representative Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), of Arizona, was quoted as saying in Friday's issue of The Washington Times that a fence would not work for half of the 400,000 immigrants that enter the United States every year and overstay their legal entry visas.
While the administration of Republican
President George W. Bush has vowed to do more to enforce the borders.
It was unclear whether the fence building bill would receive sufficient support to pass in both houses of Congress.
Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff on Tuesday announced that 1,000 additional border guards would be recruited to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants.
Two weeks ago, Chertoff said his goal was to deport all illegal aliens caught crossing the border.
The conservative Washington Times newspaper on Friday said Republican lawmakers were also considering a bill ending birthright citizenship, or jus soli, which is a right granted under the US constitution.
"There is a general agreement about the fact that citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are the children of folks who come into this country illegally," said Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
A group of Republican lawmakers trying to find consensus on immigration is studying whether the issue of jus soli would require a constitutional amendment or a congressional statute.
A constitutional amendment would require approval by three fourths of the 50 US states, a very difficult undertaking. The last amendment, the 27th, establishing congressional pay increases was passed in 1992.