Bush tightens US security

2006-10-04 21:11

Scottsdale - President George W Bush signed a homeland security bill on Thursday that included an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $1.2bn for fencing along the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration.

Standing before a mountainous backdrop in Arizona, a state that has been the centre of much debate about secure borders, Bush signed into law a $35bn homeland security spending bill that could bring hundreds of kilometres of fencing to the busiest illegal entry point on the US-Mexican border.

"This bill is going to make this country safe for all its citizens," said Bush at the bill-signing ceremony tucked into his three-day campaign fundraising trip to the west.

Among other things, Bush said the homeland security funding bill deployed nuclear detection equipment to points of entry, raised safety security standards at chemical plants, provided better tools to enforce immigration laws and provided vehicle barriers, lighting and infrared cameras to help catch illegals trying to cross the border.

What the US wants

"It's what the people in this country want," Bush said. "They want to know that we are modernising the border so we can better secure the border."

Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent his six-year term lobbying for a new guest-worker programme and an amnesty for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the United States, has called the barrier "shameful". He compares it to the Berlin Wall.

Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the US government saying a plan to build hundreds of kilometres of fencing on their common border would damage relations.

However, US politicians facing November elections - in which all 435 seats in the house of representatives and 33 of the senate's 100 seats are on the line - have shown a greater appetite for border-security measures.

Bush said he would continue to work with congress to pass his guest-worker programme.

- AP