US wants to build 'Berlin Wall'

2005-11-04 15:53

Washington - Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to build a 3 200km wall along the United States border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out.

House of Representatives members Duncan Hunter of California and Virgil Goode of Virginia said: "The legislation aims to "create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico."

Hunter said: "Before September 11 2001, illegal immigration was considered a regional issue without national implications.

"However, we quickly learned on that day that this is a national issue, affecting each and every American, not just those living in border communities like San Diego county."

Attorneys, immigration judges

They said their True Enforcement and Border Security Act would also "authorise thousands of new border patrol officers, immigration investigators, attorneys and immigration judges".

Hunter said it was important to identify who crossed the border and who helped them do it, adding that four North Koreans were among those arrested trying to enter the US illegally in the past few months.

Regarding the cost and difficulty of building a wall along the entire border with Mexico, Hunter said: "It's a simple construction."

While Hunter assured skeptics that a fence would work in keeping out unwanted immigrants, pointing to a successful 22km stretch of fence near San Diego, California, other Republican lawmakers were not so sure.

Legal entry visas

Representative Jeff Flake, of Arizona, said a fence would not work for half of the 400 000 immigrants who entered the US every year and overstayed their legal-entry visas.

While the administration of President George W Bush had vowed to do more to enforce the borders, it was unclear whether the fence-building bill would receive enough support to pass in both houses of congress.

Homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff announced on Tuesday that 1 000 additional border guards would be recruited to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants.

Two weeks ago, Chertoff said his goal was to deport all illegal aliens caught crossing the border.

Birthright citizenship

The reports on Friday said Republican lawmakers were also considering a bill ending birthright citizenship, or jus soli, which was a right granted under the US constitution.

Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado said: "There is a general agreement about the fact that citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are the children of folks who come into this country illegally."

A group of Republican lawmakers trying to find consensus on immigration was studying whether the issue of jus soli would require a constitutional amendment or a congressional statute.

A constitutional amendment would require approval by three-quarters of the 50 US states, a difficult undertaking.

The last amendment, the 27th, establishing congressional pay increases was passed in 1992.

- AFP