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President Bush on Thursday signed legislation authorizing 700 miles of fencing along the southern U.S. border, providing GOP candidates with a new accomplishment to brandish as they head into an increasingly difficult battle to guard their majorities in Congress.

The president waited until just 12 days before the election to sign the bill, which Republicans hope will strike a chord with conservative voters and others concerned about illegal immigration. Bush, who signed the legislation during a brief ceremony at the White House, put in a pitch for the broader immigration bill he backs.

"There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic pass to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation," Bush said. "And I look forward to working with Congress to find that middle ground."

Leading Democrats scorned the move. "This morning, the president plans to sign legislation authorizing a 700-mile border fence that his own administration does not plan to build and for which the Republican Congress has not provided construction money," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. "This fence that will not actually be built is a perfect symbol of the Republicans' unwillingness to make controlling our borders a priority."

The legislation also increases the number of vehicle barriers and checkpoints and the use of advanced cameras, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles to increase enforcement, according to a White House summary. On hand for the Bush event were Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., and senior administration border security officials.

COMMENTS

• Shame on Republicans? It is the Democrats who did nothing to stem the illegal immigrant inflow for many long years, Democrats who use tax dollars to build centers to shelter illegal day laborers, and Democrats who work to enfranchise, embrace and pardon criminals. If Democrats had any sense of shame at all they would slink quietly away from this discussion. That they dare to point fingers now lays bare to the world their own shamelessness. GovExec.com reader Posted October 30, 2006 4:10 PM
• You may authorize anything you want but it means nothing until the money is appropriated. You cannot even appropriate money for the Defense Department to fight the war and now you think you will get a fence? The fence is designed for providing GOP candidates with a new accomplishment to brandish as they head into an increasingly difficult battle to guard their majorities in Congress. I think most taxpayers will see this as a big waste of money and not something good or desirable - unless they happen to live along the fence. Taxpayer Posted October 31, 2006 7:05 AM
• What a thinly veiled effort to get votes in November. How does the president expect a short fence to deter illegal immigration? If the fence covered the whole border it would greatly deter illegal immigrants ... but that wasn't the reason for the fence, was it? I'm sick and tired of all the political bull!!! I'm also sick and tired of Republicans. All politicians want to be everything to everybody but none want to give our citizens what they want. We want our borders secured, "period"! We want the killing of our soldiers to stop! We want our politicians to stop changing laws just because the president says so. We want low taxes, we want our jobs to stay in the United States, we want integrity in our elected leaders. I know we're asking too much. Power corrupts absolutely. Un-Civil Servant GovExec.com reader Posted October 31, 2006 9:52 AM