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The United States will miss its deadline to complete a security fence along the Mexican border this year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday.
"I don't think we're going to hit the nail on the head and be done by the end of the year," Chertoff told Reuters, adding that about 370 miles (595 km) of the planned 670-mile (1,070-km) fence had been completed.
Chertoff said he hoped when the Bush administration leaves office in January about 90 to 95 percent of the fence.
"We've gotten most of the way there. We will be very substantially close," he said in an interview.
Congress has mandated that the fence, which will eventually stretch from California to Texas to help stem the tide of illegal immigration, be finished this year but law suits have slowed its progress.
"We've had some delay because the court proceedings in Texas have gone more slowly than I thought ... Although every time there's actually been a legal challenge, we've won," Chertoff said.
The nearly 2,000-mile 3,200-km border with Mexico is the main entry route for illegal immigrants into the United States, which is already home to 11 million to 12 million undocumented aliens.
Better enforcement have slowed the influx however. Border patrol agents arrested 880,000 people crossing illegally in 2007, down from 1.1 million a year earlier.
Chertoff said progress was being made on other measures aimed at boosting border security, including moves to double the number of border patrol personnel on the job to more than 18,000 by the end of 2008.
"We will hit the 18,000 target," he said.
He said that plans for a $21 million expansion of a high-tech "virtual fence" along parts of the border were being implemented and the first test section was yielding results.
"We've used it to catch thousands of illegal migrants we've also seized several tons of marijuana," he said.
The government announced this year that it was awarding Boeing Co contracts to build two sections of the fence that would include fixed towers, radar and ground sensors, remote control cameras and software linking border agents.
A group of House Republicans on Tuesday called on the Homeland Security Department to build 700 miles of double-layered fencing along the border with Mexico, as required under a 2006 law.
Leading the group, Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., has introduced legislation that would place such a mandate on the department. Congress removed the requirements in the 2006 law as part of the fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill.
But the Republicans said they are committed to seeing the fencing built. "This to me is a matter of national security," Jones said during a news conference. "We believe sincerely that this issue cannot be delayed."
Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff told reporters Monday that the department plans to have 670 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers constructed along the border by the end of this year.
But that is unacceptable to Republicans like House Homeland Security ranking member Peter King, who introduced the 2006 law. "I'm not satisfied with that answer," King said of Chertoff's remarks. He said the department only plans to build 370 miles of physical fencing, of which a small fraction will be double-layered.
Chertoff also said he believed the border would be secured by 2011. But the secretary said it could be secured sooner if Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform that includes a guest-worker program.
WASHINGTON - Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along the Mexican border.
Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites. The coalition of mayors and business and community leaders is seeking an injunction to block work on the fence.
They also want a federal judge to rescind all the agreements with landowners and to order Chertoff to start again. The department has sought and won access from hundreds of landowners to determine where to build the fence and other barriers to illegal border crossings.
The coalition's attorney, Peter Schey, said Chertoff violated a 1996 immigration law that requires fair negotiation with landowners.
The lawsuit also names Robert Janson, director of Asset Management at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as a defendant.
It was filed with U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, a Bush nominee who presided in the criminal case of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.
"They hoodwinked property owners" into waiving their property rights, Schey said.
"This whole thing has been built on a foundation of lawlessness," he said.
Landowners were visited by officials from Homeland Security, Army Corps of Engineers and Customs and Border Patrol. But the government didn't send anyone to advise the owners' of their property rights, Schey said. Some landowners accepted offers of $100 for access to their land.
The Homeland Security Department has repeatedly denied allegations of unfair negotiations, saying it has bent over backward to work with landowners.
The agency wants to build about 353 miles of fence by year's end to bring total fencing, walls and barriers to about 670 miles.
Chertoff said the Border Patrol has convinced him that the fence and where it is being built will be key to controlling the border. He said Congress has overwhelmingly mandated building the fence.
"We've had a whole number of lawsuits filed up to now with people claiming there hasn't been adequate consultation, and the courts have rejected those, because we have had dozens of town hall meetings," Chertoff said in a news conference. "We've had constant and consistent efforts at engaging with the public."
The lawsuit also alleges:
• Chertoff failed to write and make public any regulations or guidelines on negotiation procedure and determining a "reasonable" price for access to property.
• Chertoff has not written policies on how to consult with landowners about their concerns as required by a 2007 law.
• Landowners' rights to equal protection under the law were violated because the fence bypasses the property of some well-connected landowners, including Dallas billionaire Ray Hunt and his relatives.
• The newer law requires Chertoff to build the fence where it is most practical and effective but he continues to build where a 2006 law specified.
Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said the mayors are willing to work with Homeland Security to devise alternatives to the border fence.
"They are determined to build a wall to appease mid-America," Ahumada said. "This is a political problem that's being addressed at the expense of all the border communities."
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On the Net:
Texas Border Coalition: http://www.texasbordercoalition.org
Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov
The government will replace its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border with new towers, radars, cameras and computer software, scrapping the brand-new $20 million system because it doesn't work sufficiently, officials said.
The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff officially accepted the completed fence from the Boeing Co.
With the decision, Customs and Border Protection officials are acknowledging that the so-called Project 28 pilot program to detect illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border does not work well enough to keep or to continue tweaking.
Chertoff accepted the program Feb. 22 after Boeing apparently resolved software glitches. But less than a week later, GAO told Congress it "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future" developments.
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