Doubts linger on feasibility of barrier

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Both proponents and opponents of 700 miles of fences along the U.S.-Mexico border question whether the Bush administration can deliver the barriers -- whose exact location, price tag and construction start date remain unknown.

The Secure Fence Act, signed yesterday by President Bush, does not require the government to show any results of fence construction until May 2008 and while it does specify where along the 1,951-mile U.S.-Mexico border the barriers should go, there's no guarantee they ever will.

State legislatures, governors, and city and county governments, along with Indian tribal councils, have veto power over fencing locations.

"Even if Congress funds the construction of 700 miles of border fencing -- and that is a big if -- the fence will do nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration," said T.J. Bonner, a 28-year U.S. Border Patrol veteran and president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 10,000 of the agency's non-supervisory personnel.

The fence act calls for 698 miles of border fences, along with lighting, roads, sensors, cameras and other security devices. A separate $33.8 billion Homeland Security funding bill signed by Mr. Bush on Oct. 10 authorizes $1.2 billion to begin building it.

But fence proponents and opponents agree that the $1.2 billion allocation is far short of the up to $9 billion it will take to build the proposed fencing. Congress has withheld $950 million pending a breakdown of how the money will be spent.

The fence bill also has irked the Mexican government, where President-elect Felipe Calderon has described the proposal as "deplorable" and outgoing President Vicente Fox told reporters in Mexico City he was "confident" the fence would never be built.

The act calls for the construction of "at least 2 layers of reinforced fencing to prevent unlawful entry by aliens into the United States," although it does not specify what type of fencing to build.

"At best, the type of fencing that is contemplated will serve as a speed bump that slows illegal crossers by perhaps a minute or two," Mr. Bonner said, adding that the Border Patrol would have to be increased tenfold to "to intercept these law-breakers."

Mr. Bonner said experience has "amply demonstrated" that increases and declines in the number of illegal aliens coming across the border "are almost exclusively influenced by the amount of law-enforcement personnel assigned to an area rather than the length or type of fences and barriers."