Good Fences and Such
Congress says it's going to build a 700-mile barrier along the Mexican border. Don't hold your breath
It was a telling moment. Last week when Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert faced a battering of press questions about the congressional page scandal, he reached for a life raft: President George W. Bush's promise to sign a bill that would create 700 miles of metal fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border. "A lot of people wanted us to address the issue about the border," he told reporters, "and we did exactly that."
Really? As is so often the case in Washington, the reality wasn't as tidy as the rhetoric. Congress passed the Secure Fence Act, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to build 700 miles of steel fencing, but critics say backdoor deals have denied the project the necessary funding. In fact, the bill's fine print-and a flurry of last-minute compromises that paved the way for its passage-raise questions about what, if anything, will eventually be built. "This isn't the answer to our problems," says Angela Kelley of the National Immigration Forum. "It's empty symbolism."
On the face of it, the fence bill looks like an aggressive response. The measure adds 700 miles of fencing-split into five segments-to the roughly 75 miles of solid metal border walls already lining parts of the 1,951-mile U.S.-Mexico border. A 390-mile segment would stretch from mid-California across most of Arizona. Other chunks would block a cocaine-trafficking route near Laredo, Texas, and close a path through the Lower Rio Grande Valley once popular with Brazilian migrants. The fence is modeled on a stretch of 15-foot-high double fences-with a high-speed-access road running between them-that Rep. Duncan Hunter says slashed the number of attempted border crossings in his San Diego district after they were built in the mid-1990s. The number of arrests dropped there by almost two thirds.
Details. But what happens now isn't entirely clear. Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost $3.2 million a mile, Congress voted to hand DHS just $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2007 for construction; that would cover the cost of about 370 miles of fence, not 700. What's more, a congressional deal gives DHS the flexibility to use money for other purposes besides the wall itself, most notably technology and roadways. Some of the money could go to a project DHS was already working on: a plan to dot the border with up to 1,800 massive observation towers equipped with cameras. Michael Jackson, the No. 2 official at DHS, says the department plans "to refine and assess how much [steel fencing] we need with the new technology tool kit." DHS, he adds, will most likely build "somewhere in the ballpark" of 370 miles of San Diego-style fence.
The bill offers DHS other kinds of wiggle room on the fence as well. In a last-minute effort to appease two Republican holdouts-including Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had concerns about local input on the location of fencing -congressional leaders committed in writing to changing some specific aspects of the legislation after the November elections. Those changes will ensure that local governments and American Indian tribes will be consulted "regarding the exact placement of the fence," according to a letter signed by Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The letter also says DHS will have the "flexibility to use alternative physical infrastructure and technology when fencing is ineffective or impractical." Some say that means large portions of the fence bill are basically moot. Others disagree. "A letter is just a letter," says Carolyn Weyforth, Frist's press secretary. "What comes to the floor and passes is what matters."
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