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November 17, 2006
DHS Warns "Virtual" Fence Will Cost More "Real" Money "The Bush administration's proposal to secure the nation's borders with a Illegal Alien Supporters Prepare for New Amnesty Push "With the Democrats set to take control of Congress next year, pro-immigrant McCain: GOP Was Punished for Not Being Enough Like Me, and Supporting Amnesty "Senator John McCain said Thursday that Republicans had lost the midterm The Amnesty Fallacy: 2006 Election Returns "Little did voters know it, but last week they were delivering a mandate Related: Only Mass Amnesty and Kowtowing Can Save the Republican Party by Tamar Jacoby |
high-tech 'virtual fence' is likely to cost far more than the $2 billion that industry analysts initially estimated, possibly up to $30 billion, a government watchdog agency warned yesterday. According to the Homeland Security Department inspector general, the ambitious plan to deploy sensors, cameras and other surveillance technology along 6,000 miles of the borders with Canada and Mexico runs the risk of runaway costs because of poorly defined objectives and a vastly overstretched contracting staff at the department," the Washington Post reported. "Members of a House homeland security oversight panel stressed yesterday how the government's poor track record on border enforcement undermined their confidence. A much smaller attempt in the 1990s to deploy remote-sensing technology on the border 'started as a $2 million program and turned into a quarter-billion-dollar disaster,' said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), becoming 'a poster child of government waste and mismanagement.'"
groups are meeting around the nation to devise a new strategy to win amnesty for illegal immigrants, repeal of the Secure Fence Act and more visas for foreigners. Activists say they have a better chance of gaining reforms under the Democrats than under the Republicans, but believe it will still require intense political pressure and efforts to mold public opinion," the Washington Post reports. "Anti-illegal immigration groups counter that a number of Democrats will be loath to embrace legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. 'Many newly elected members ran on a ticket of enforcement, so it's going to be difficult for them to turn around and vote for amnesty,' said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-illegal immigrant group."
elections because 'we abandoned our principles' on fiscal policy and government restraint, inviting a backlash from Americans over what they saw as widespread hypocrisy . . . One of Mr. McCain’s political tasks as he considers a presidential campaign has been to reinforce his standing with conservatives. Mr. McCain has found himself at odds with conservative leaders in opposing the call for immigration measures to prevent illegal immigrants from attaining citizenship," the New York Times writes. 
for amnesty for illegal immigrants. Most of them probably thought they were voting on the Iraq War or on corruption, but elite opinion-makers have decided that they also were panting for a laxer immigration policy," says National Review editor Rich Lowry. "There’s no doubt that electing a Democratic Congress furthers the cause of an amnesty and guest-worker program by removing the main obstacle to both: the Republican majority in the House. But there is no good evidence that championing strict immigration enforcement was a loser for Republicans, or that voters elected Democrats explicitly to permit illegals already in this country to stay and to invite more of their brethren to come. Any suggestion otherwise comes from advocates of amnesty who interpret anything voters do -- now up to and including expressing their discontent with an unpopular war -- as a call for more immigration."