TX congressman says Bush border fence nowhere to be found

TX congressman says Bush border fence nowhere to be found

A Texas lawmaker says the Bush Administration has dragged its feet too long in building the congressionally authorized security fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Representative John Carter (R-Texas) says he has asked President Bush and his staff on numerous occasions why the Homeland Security Department has made little progress in building a 700-mile fence along the southern border. So far, Carter says he has not received a satisfactory response.

"They claim that they're building fence," he explains. "I was in a meeting with Karl Rove less than a month ago and he was bragging on the fence. [I asked him to] tell me where it is so I can go see it -- because I haven't seen it, and I can't find anybody who has."

Carter explains that he holds a firm stance on the fence issue. "We build fence where a fence does the right job -- and that's part of what we've got to do: be smart about how we police our borders," says the Republican lawmaker. "We ought to be building a fence."

On another immigration-related issue, Carter believes that the new proposal being floated by Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) that would grant U.S. citizenship to family members of illegal aliens would be dead on arrival if it ever reached the House. He says such a plan would increase the flood of illegal aliens fourfold.

"We can't do 20 million people and multiply them by four and expect anything to get any better in the situation we're dealing with here," he observes. "First, we've got to be able to enforce our borders and enforce our laws."

Carter plans to introduce legislation to that effect as well as continuing to push for the border fence to be completed.