Washington, Sep 14 - With the support of U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, M.D. (R-FL), the U.S. House of Representatives today approved a strong border security bill that, among other things, authorizes the immediate construction of 700-miles of double-layered security fence to halt the flood of illegal immigrants coming through our porous southern border.  A similar 14-mile fence along the San Diego border has precipitated a drastic regional decline in illegal immigration – reducing illegal crossings from 200,000 in 1992 to 9,000 last year.

According to Weldon, a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, “House Republicans are not going to let Democrat plans for a massive amnesty hold border security hostage.  Despite opposition from two-thirds of House Democrats, the House has once again passed legislation that addresses a national security Achilles heel: our porous southern border.  Securing our border is the first step toward a workable solution on immigration reform, and today’s bill is an important down payment toward completing the whole job.”

The measure also requires the Department of Homeland Security to maintain better control along the southern border through a “virtual fence,” created by employing state-of-the-art cameras, ground censors, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and surveillance technology.
    
Since coming to Congress in 1995, Weldon has been leading the charge to address the problem of illegal immigration.  In the mid-1990s, Weldon was a founding member of the House Border Control Caucus, which was instrumental in pressuring the federal government to quadruple the number of border patrol agents along our southern border.