By the end of 2008, the U.S. government may spend $2.2 billion for a proposed fence to divide Southwestern residents and their Mexican neighbors.
Congress allocated $1.2 billion for the 2007 fiscal year for the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection have asked for an additional $1 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, which runs from September to September, said Mike Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Congress has not yet approved the 2008 fiscal budget for the department.
The U.S. Congress passed, and President Bush signed, the Secure Fence Act of 2006 to establish control over international land and maritime borders. The Department of Homeland Security is permitted to use personnel, technology, sensors, satellites, cameras, fencing and other measures to prevent all unlawful U.S. entries, according to the act's text.
The department has erected about 150 miles of pedestrian fencing along the southern border of the U.S. and plans to add more.
"We have a goal to complete an additional 225 miles of pedestrian fencing by the end of 2008," Friel said. "This addition will give us a cumulative 370 miles of border fencing."
The act does not specify how many miles of the two-layered fencing will be laid, only its proposed location. However, Friel said the final location is still being debated.
"We're committed to a dialogue with land owners that may be affected and border communities on the Texas side," he said.
Earlier this week the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College filed a complaint opposing the border fence. It was drafted by elected trustees who represent the colleges and indicates their displeasure of plans to run the fence near the campuses, said Antonio Zavaleta, vice president for external affairs for the institutions. Current plans show the fence would detach the university's golf course from the campus. He said the resolution has been forwarded to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
Zavaleta said he has been very vocal against the fence because he thinks it will be destructive to his bi-national community.
"We pride ourselves in that we look both to the north and the south," Zavaleta said.
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