Border battle: GOP hard-liners push stricter security
Immigration reformers pushing for moderate guest-worker proposals that would allow some illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens–an idea sometimes dubbed "amnesty" by critics–faced yet more skids this week, only days after a congressional primary win by a Minuteman in Arizona buoyed the confidence of hard-liners.
In the House, members of Congress who last year had supported that chamber's immigration measure – a bill criticized in some corners for making felons of the country's estimated 12 million illegal aliens – pinned their hopes on the Immigration Law Enforcement Act. That measure, up for consideration today, would empower state and local law enforcement officials to enforce immigration laws.
Another bill also on the docket would reverse two Supreme Court decisions by lifting a ban that prevents the Department of Homeland Security from continuing to detain illegal aliens indefinitely if it is not likely they will be able to be returned to their countries of origin. Some countries, including China, which has an estimated 40,000 illegal aliens here, have previously resisted taking back their nationals, who have subsequently been allowed to meld into the U.S. population.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist moved to advance legislation that would authorize the building of 700 miles of double-layered steel fencing along the southern border. The Senate had included only 370 miles of fencing in its comprehensive immigration bill passed earlier this year, while the House had included 700, leading some analysts to dub the bill a small victory for hard-liners.
Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, an advocate for more border barriers, praised the measure as necessary for security, while President Bush, who has repeatedly urged Congress to adopt legislation including milder guest-worker proposals, told CNN he would sign the fencing act, which was passed by the House last week.
"I would view this," he said, "as an interim step."
Meanwhile, DHS came one step closer to creating what's referred to as the "virtual fence" at the border with its decision to award a coveted multibillion-dollar border security contract to aerospace giant Boeing. The contract, valued at $2 billion, allows the private sector to play a larger role than ever before in securing the border.
Boeing, which duked it out with five prominent competitors–including defense industry behemoths Raytheon and Lockheed Martin–proposed to line the northern and southern borders with a network of 1,800 high-tech, movable surveillance towers that would include motion sensors and could beam intelligence back to Border Patrol officers in real time. The cameras on their towers could spot people as far away as 8 miles and vehicles as far away as 12 miles.
"All five of these companies recognize that they must build better information systems," says Jim Carafano, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who praised all of the plans' focus on getting better intelligence to Border Patrol officials. Carafano, however, was critical of DHS's decision to make contractors focus almost equally on the northern and southern borders.
"The best way to secure the border in the north," Carafano says, "is to work with Canada to keep terrorists from entering that country."
Boeing will bring a unique vision to its plan, which could drastically change the way security looks on the U.S. border. In addition to the towers, Boeing's proposal was a departure from several of the other models because it carved out a smaller role for unmanned aerial vehicles, full-size planes–or drones–piloted from the ground that can be used to get a bird's eye view of border-crossing activity. Boeing's plan will allow border agents to deploy some smaller UAVs from the backs of their trucks. Minisize UAVs similar to oversize remote-control airplanes have been deployed on and off for at least the past three years by ranchers on property lining the southern border.
Glenn Spencer, the leader of a group called "American Border Patrol," has used surveillance images captured by such planes to highlight immigrants he says border agents are missing.
Reached earlier this week, Sen. Judd Gregg, head of the Senate's Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee and a frequent critic of DHS's slip-ups in technology procurements, expressed cautious optimism for the massive government security expenditure, which is part of the Secure Border Initiative, a DHS strategy announced by Secretary Michael Chertoff in November.
"I think the private sector should play a bigger role in the border effort," said Gregg, who emphasized that private companies would bring innovations to the process. "The jury's still out on this one," he added, "but it's certainly going to be interesting."
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