YUMA, Ariz., May 18 (UPI) -- The White House said Thursday President Bush is backing a proposal to fence off hundreds of miles of border to help keep out illegal immigrants.
Spokesman Tony Snow made the statement aboard Air Force One as Bush traveled to Arizona to meet with Border Patrol officials and comment on immigration reform.
Snow said Bush didn't believe you could fence off the entire 2,000 mile border with Mexico, but "there are places where fences are appropriate, and you build fences there."
"I don't think anybody has seriously proposed building a wall across the entire border. What the president has said is he's going to try to have the right and appropriate types of security in the right places. In some places you're going to need a fence; in some places you'll need Border Patrol agents; some places where you have vast stretches of desert or wilderness, you'll use surveillance techniques. So you use things that are appropriate to the locales," Snow said.
The House of Representatives, in a bill heavy on the enforcement, proposed a 700-mile fence along the Mexican frontier to keep out illegals. The Senate fencing provision is more moderate in distance.
Fencing, along with the decision to deploy National Guard troops along the border in support roles to the Border Patrol, are seen as moves to help garner conservative Republican support in the Senate for an immigration reform measure less stringent than they desire, but more likely to be voted into law.
