WASHINGTON – President Bush today signed a bill authorizing 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who was the author of bills to both authorize and pay for construction of border fencing, made the following comment:
“I applaud President Bush for signing into law legislation that authorizes the construction of 700 miles of fencing along our southern border with Mexico. As I said several times during the immigration debate, good fences make good neighbors. Fencing is a critical part of creating a lawful system of immigration, and today’s action is a great step forward. But the administration is going to have to follow through on its commitment to build a fence. While we plan to give the Department of Homeland Security flexibility in deciding where the miles of fencing and additional border barriers are most needed, Congress must be vigilant in ensuring that the government get busy and complete construction of border fencing. Once the required miles of fencing are in place, we will be on a path toward achieving operational control of our borders, and the American people will see that Congress has finally gotten serious about fixing our broken immigration system.”
