Fence fiasco: Or <em>Feliz ano nuevo </em>

FRANK MIELE

The decline of American sovereignty would typically be a big story in any year, but with all the news coming out of Hollywood this year, maybe it was a bit overshadowed by more significant events.

I mean, how can the virtual surrender of a 231-year-old nation to the Pollyanna-ish forces of political correctness possibly compete with the dramatic real-life struggles of Briitney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, and the nation?s hot new nymphet, Britney?s baby sister, Jamie Lynn Spears?

But every once in a while, when Fox News could get their cameras to focus a little higher than their blonde news anchors? ankles and thighs, a significant story would slip through by accident.

Most recently, we learned that Congress ? that hallmark of American integrity ? had pulled a fast one on the voting public by undermining the border fence which it had so ostentatiously supported before the 2006 midterm elections.

Back then, Congress voted to approve two layers of reinforced fencing, as well as additional physical barriers, roads, lighting and electronic surveillance? across portions of the border totaling 700 miles.

The president signed the bill, too, even though he has generally been an obstructionist on any issue that involves the United States standing up to its neighbor to the south.

That?s because the voting public was getting restless, wondering how the government could justify allowing 20 million illegal aliens to take up residence in our country, utilize public services, and demand their ?right? to U.S. citizenship!

Back in October of 2006, I wrote a column subtitled ?Lies about the fence,? in which I warned that the bill authorizing the border fence did not provide any funding for it, and was just one more political shell game.

I was partly wrong. Despite my warnings, apparently FIVE MILES of the purported 700-MILE fence has actually been built in the last year, for which, I suppose, we should be grateful. At this ?frenetic? pace, we can get the entire 700 miles built by the year 2147. Perhaps the descendants of Vicente Fox and George Bush can hold a picnic as the last fence post is put into place in the 22nd century while they toast the 100th anniversary of the founding of the United States of North America.

There has never been any doubt that President Bush was against the fence, and Mexico?s former president Fox said at the time the bill was passed in 2006 that the fence was an ?embarrassment.?

Heck no, the embarrassment is that this country CAN?T build a fence.

Just as predicted by advocates of border security last year, the project has been met with one bureaucratic or congressional stalling tactic after another. The latest sleight-of-hand was seen in the $555 billion spending bill signed by President Bush last week.

Remarkably, the Republican senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, added language on a voice vote that essentially strips the 2006 Secure Border Fence of any teeth it had. Here?s what she added about funding for the fence:

?Nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location.?

In other words, it leaves total discretion for whether to build the fence or not to the administration that opposed the fence in the first place. Way to go, Congress, and feliz ano nuevo.

? Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com.