$1-billion-a-year border bill unneeded, critics say

A $1 billion-a-year bill moving through Congress would add miles of roads and fences along the border and waive more than a dozen environmental laws within 100 miles of the border even though top immigration officials say thats not needed.

The proposed bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to achieve operational control of the U.S.-Mexico border. That means that all illegal entries are stopped, which top DHS officials have said is unrealistic.

But Martha McSally, Southern Arizonas newly elected Republican U.S. representative who co-sponsored the House bill, said setting an ambitious standard is the best way to achieve success.

We have to set a very high goal to understand how important it is to get this job done, McSally said. Arizonas U.S. senators Republicans John McCain and Jeff Flake co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

The House bills author, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, calls it the toughest border security bill ever set before Congress, but neither the Border Patrol union nor local environmentalists think its needed.

We dont address the underlying issues, said Roger McManus, a biologist who is president of Friends of the Sonoran Desert. People keep coming here for jobs, and drugs keep coming through over the border because theres a demand for them, he said.

Groups on both sides of the immigration debate also have spoken out against the bill either because they say it doesnt do enough to stop illegal immigration or because it wont lead to comprehensive immigration reform.

Perhaps the strongest rebuke of all came Friday from Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who issued a statement saying the bill is extreme to the point of being unworkable; if enacted, it would actually leave the border less secure. The bill sets mandatory and highly prescriptive standards that the Border Patrol itself regards as impossible to achieve, undermines the Department of Homeland Securitys capacity to adapt to emerging threats, and politicizes tactical decisions.

Among other things, the Republican bill would:

Add 48 miles of new double-layer pedestrian fencing.

Continued here:
$1-billion-a-year border bill unneeded, critics say