With Senate Vote, Congress Passes Border Fence Bill

"This is not a sign of strength and engagement, but a sign of weakness and fear. And frankly, speaking as an American, it's an embarrassment," said Kevin Appleby, director of migration and refugee policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) taunted Bush for laying out an expansive vision of immigration reform, only to cave "to the radical anti-immigrant right wing of his party."

"It is a shame that after he went on national television to call for comprehensive reform, even after he went to Mexico this summer and said he was against fences, he is now willing to settle for this ineffective half-measure," Reid said.

Advocates and opponents of the measure said it is not clear that the fence can be built as the bill envisions. The Arizona branch would have to plunge down steep ravines and scale craggy mountain peaks. "This is not Iowa farmland," said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Construction is "going to be near impossible."

A vast stretch of the Arizona fence would traverse the lands of the Tohono O'odham Nation, which strongly opposes it and could bring suit, said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.). Construction crews would have to deal with rivers and streams running north to south and wildlife migration routes that do not respect the U.S.-Mexico divide. And the Border Patrol does not have enough agents to stop smugglers from simply knocking holes in remote stretches.

"It's not feasible," said Kolbe, who is retiring from Congress at the end of the year. "It's a statement for the election. That's all."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) tried to amend the Senate bill to give the Department of Homeland Security more flexibility in the placement of the barriers, but House leaders resisted any changes to the House-passed bill. In the end, she settled for a letter from GOP leaders promising to revisit the issue when Congress returns after the elections.

An effort by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) to moderate the bill's definition of "operational control" was also dropped. The bill defines operational control as preventing all unlawful entries. Martinez suggested dropping the word "all."

Passage of the fence bill culminated a year of sometimes-vicious infighting among Republicans, who were divided between the get-tough approach of the House GOP and the more comprehensive vision embraced by Bush and many Senate Republicans. In December, the House approved legislation to declare illegal immigrants to be felons, build a border fence, increase penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers, expedite the detention and removal of illegal immigrants, and create a vast database of lawful Social Security numbers and other indicators for employers to use to check the legality of their workers.

The Senate, led by a bipartisan coalition headed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), followed in May with legislation that coupled many of the same border security measures with guest-worker programs that would allow illegal immigrants to find lawful employment and, eventually, citizenship.

But House GOP leaders never moved to negotiate a final compromise. Instead, this summer, they launched a series of politically freighted immigration field hearings that entrenched the House's enforcement-only approach. House Republicans saw the final passage of the fence bill last night as a victory.