Troops, and Now a Fence -- Capitol Hill's Plan for Immigration Legislation Taking Shape
by Jody Brown and Chad Groening
May 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The U.S. Senate has called for the construction of 370 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to go along with the 6,000 National Guard troops President Bush says he plans to deploy to assist the work of the Border Patrol. While reaction is yet to come from the Mexican government to the Senate's latest move, the Vicente Fox administration has threatened to sue the U.S. if Bush actually does what he says he is going to do. Immigration reform promises to be a hot topic as the 2006 elections draw nearer. With the Senate's move to construct an actual fence along the border -- and its approval of a provision giving immigrants who have been in the country for more than two years an eventual chance at citizenship -- the White House will likely turn its attention to the House of Representatives, where a contingent of Republicans seems reluctant to support Bush's overall plan. Their support would be critical if an immigration bill is to come out of Congress this year.
The Senate's proposal closely tracks the president's call earlier this week for a comprehensive immigration bill, which includes temporarily assigning several thousand National Guard troops to border hot-spots to provide logistical and other types of support to the U.S. Border Patrol. One report says those troops, if necessary, could be federalized, thereby allowing them to go into the border states over the objections of a state's governor.
Soon after President Bush's announcement proposing the use of Guardsmen along the border, the Mexican government issued a statement saying it will sue the United States if the White House moves forward with the plan. Robert Vasquez -- an American military veteran of Mexican descent who currently serves as a county commissioner in Canyon County, Idaho, and is running for a congressional seat from the state's First District -- says he was appalled by the Mexican government's announcement.
"It's the height of hypocrisy," he says. "The Mexican government has placed its military along its southern border. They have, in fact, been ordered or authorized to use whatever means necessary to stop illegal aliens from entering Mexico along the southern border."
The Idaho Republican sees another double-standard. According to Vasquez, "if you are caught as an illegal alien in Mexico, you are treated far more harshly, with far greater chance of some sort of physical injury, than if you're captured in the United States."
Vasquez says if Mexico takes legal action in the U.N. World Court, it would likely side with Mexico. He says the U.S. should simply ignore any threatened law suits from Mexico. "As far as I'm concerned, they can take whatever they want to the World Court, because it doesn't mean squat to America," he says. "Nor should it." The congressional candidate's website carries the campaign slogan: "Secure our borders -- Secure our future."
