DeMint Launches New Site to Demand Border Fence
www.completethefencenow.com
The press:
Sen. Jim DeMint announced today the release of a new grassroots website for the “Complete the Fence Act” called www.completethefencenow.com. The website features a two minute video about the need for the border fence titled “700 Miles of Necessity” and has a list of border fence facts and links for visitors interested in blogging, writing a letter to the editor or telling friends and family about the bill.
“Immigration reform is a critical issue for our nation that cannot be ignored,” said Sen. DeMint. “This debate will only be won if the voices of concerned Americans are heard. I want this website to serve as a resource for people looking to get this important information out to others.”
Sen. DeMint hopes the video will raise public awareness of the critical need for actually completing the fence along our border with Mexico and other members of the Senate will realize this issue is about more than immigration.
“I think it is important for people to realize the urgent need for completing a security fence along the Mexican border,” said Sen. DeMint said. “It’s not just an immigration issue. This bill also addresses our nation’s drug problem, human trafficking, and the very real threat of terrorism.”
The “Complete the Fence Act” is part of 14 separate pieces of legislation intended to address the immigration problem. Sen. DeMint wants the Senate to take immediate action on this bill due to the serious national security issues stemming from our failure to complete the fence.
“We can’t sit around and wait for Congress to agree on every single detail of our immigration policy while our borders remain unsecured,” he said. “Americans clearly see the necessity for building the fence. It’s time we quit talking and start building.”
March 23rd, 2008 at 5:30 am
This is nothing more than the basest politics. Senator DeMint sees the immigrant boogeyman as a national security issue that avoids the mention of Iraq, and that he can ride to reelection. The call for campaign contributions for his reelection bid is particularly telling. It is also absurd to call a website that is being promoted by a Senator “grassroots”.
If DeMint would go to the trouble of reading the Congressional Research Service’s report “Border Security: Barriers Along the U.S. International Border,” updated June 5, 2007, he would see that they found that the San Diego wall had “no discernible impact” on the number of undocumented immigrants who enter the US. If he bothered to listed to the Border Patrol he would learn that border walls only slow a crosser down by 5 minutes. The Border Patrol is having its greatest success in reducing the flow of immigrants in places where there have never been walls. According to Border Patrol statictics in the Rio Grande Valley sector crossings were down by 34% in fiscal 2007; in the Del Rio sector they were down by 46%. Neither Texas sector has ever had a wall. In contrast, San Diego, which has parallel walls, saw a 7% increase in crossings.
DeMint should take a stab at actually representing the interests of the American people, instead of inventing absurd labels like “radical amnesty agenda.” It is utterly meaningless, but like building walls on the border it sounds good. We need leadership on this issue, not sound bites.