Lawmaker renews calls to build fence guarding border

House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., Wednesday reiterated his desire to erect a long -- and likely expensive -- fence guarding broad swaths of desert along the southwestern border with Mexico.

About 400 illegal immigrants die each year as they attempt to enter the United States through isolated desert areas, some of the harshest terrain in the country, Hunter said. "If you can save lives by fencing the desert, why not fence the desert?" he asked administration officials during a hearing.

In particular, Hunter pushed for a 392-mile fence extending through the desert from California to Arizona. An outspoken promoter of border fencing for at least 16 years, Hunter pointed repeatedly to a fence built in San Diego that he said has been successful in preventing drug smugglers from entering the country. Before that fence went up, he said, more than 300 "drug drive throughs" passed through the area each month.

Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said he would not turn away any resources Congress appropriated for border security. But he cautioned that barrier fences may not necessarily be the best solution is desert areas. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, likewise argued that erecting fences in the desert would incur significant costs for construction, upkeep and maintenance.

Increased vehicle patrols and new technologies may be more effective, said Reyes, a former Border Patrol chief in El Paso, Texas. Illegal immigrants intent on crossing the border in the desert would not be stopped by a fence, Reyes said, adding that border patrols and other experts should make decisions where "strategic fencing" is needed.

Earlier this month, the House approved language Hunter inserted into the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill that authorizes an additional $10 million over the president's request for border fences, including "no less than $2 million" to plan, design and construct fencing at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz. Hunter estimates that one-quarter of training days at Yuma are lost because training halts when immigrants stray onto training areas at the base.

The provision also authorizes the completion of the 14-mile San Diego fence construction project, and at least $3 million to build 15 miles of fencing on either side of the Laredo, Texas, point of entry.

During the hearing, Hunter joined other defense hawks on Capitol Hill in questioning plans to strip money from wartime spending accounts to pay for the Bush administration's $1.9 billion border security initiative announced last week. "If we adopted that kind of funding scheme across the federal government, we could save a lot of money," he quipped, adding that the Defense Department must ensure that it "has enough money for the warfighter."

House Armed Services ranking member Ike Skelton, D-Mo., likewise warned that the border initiative should not be "funded at the detriment of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."