Bush gives green light for building US-Mexico border fence

WASHINGTON: President George W Bush on Thursday signed into law a controversial bill authorizing construction of a fence along the US-Mexico border, shining the spotlight on illegal immigration 12 days ahead of US legislative elections.   

At a White House bill-signing ceremony, Bush said the law -- which allows for the creation of a 1,100-kilometer-long fence along a third of the US border with Mexico -- would make the frontier more secure.   

Bush called the bill "an important step toward immigration reform".   

"Unfortunately, the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades, and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise," he said.   

"We have a responsibility to address these challenges. We have a responsibility to enforce our laws. We have a responsibility to secure our borders. We take this responsibility seriously."   

But a spokesman for Mexican President Vicente Fox said Thursday that building a fence along the US-Mexico border would not solve the problem of illegal immigration, arguing that the solution lies in creating a more integrated system of US reforms.   

"We do not believe that walls can solve these problems. An integrated immigration reform system that allows for orderly, legal immigration while respecting human rights is the only solution," said Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar.   

The Mexican spokesman charged that the decision, made ahead of the November 7 US legislative elections, was politically motivated. He predicted that the barrier would never be completed because of insufficient funding.   

On October 4, the US president had signed a bill earmarking some 1.2 billion dollars in funding for the fence, in a bid to stanch the steady flow of illegal immigrants into the United States.   

Mexico had warned the barrier would damage bilateral relations.   

The 1.2 billion dollars approved by Bush fell well short of estimates to build fencing along the porous southern US border. The fence's cost has been estimated at up to six billion dollars, and Senate Democratic opposition leader Harry Reid put the price tag at some eight billion dollars.   

Republicans House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, meanwhile, hailed the move as "another step forward in making America safer and in stemming the tide of illegal immigration," and took a jab at opposition Democrats who did not support the bill.   

"The American people demand border security, and this Republican Congress and president are committed to achieving operational control of the border through an enforcement-first approach that uses physical fencing and state-of-the-art monitoring technology," they said in a joint statement.   

They also accused Democrats in Congress who had opposed the bill of "ignoring the demands of the American people for a secure border."   

Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, however, slammed the bill as a "bumper-sticker solution that Republicans hope will provide cover for their stunning failure to produce comprehensive immigration reform.   

"Enforcement alone and fences alone won't work," Kennedy said in a statement, adding that Americans "won't be fooled by these election-year tactics."   

In Ottawa, Mexico's visiting president-elect Felipe Calderon said: "The wall will not solve any problem. Humanity made a huge mistake by building the Berlin wall, and I believe that today the United States is committing a grave error in building the wall on our border."

Calderon said the fence would be expensive to US taxpayers and lead to more Mexican deaths.   

"I don't believe that it will be useful for the purpose of building a safer and more prosperous region in our security and prosperity partnership. It's much more useful to solve common problems and to foster prosperity of both countries," Calderon added.   

Rights watchdog Amnesty International, in a statement released in Mexico City, condemned the US move as "criminalising migration and a step backward on human rights".