Chris Simcox

The primary reason 70 miles of new fence has been built on schedule along the U.S.-Mexico border is because of public pressure to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, according to Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp., a border watchdog group based in Scottsdale.

In fact, the pace of construction increased in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to meet President Bush’s self-imposed deadline to finish the work, Simcox told me earlier this week. Bush and members of Congress were afraid of the public backlash if they failed to meet the deadline.

“We’re gratified to see that with our putting such emphasis on their progress, they are now working overtime to meet their obligations. Isn’t it a shame that we have to put so much pressure on them for them just to do their job? And without that pressure, I’m afraid nothing would get done,” Simcox said.

Most of the new fence is a single-layed steel wall. A double or triple layered fence would have been better, but the single-layered fence was a good start, Simcox said. “We’re still applying the pressure necessary to ensure reform and to ensure the federal government is going to do its job, as per the specifications of the American people. We’re not going to back off of them until they get the job done and get it done the right way,” he said.

For more on the new fence, read my story in today’s edition of the Tribune. It can be accessed here: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/9…

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 11:33 am and is filed under Issue: immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.