WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Texas, with the largest border with Mexico of any U.S. state, is getting the shortest stretch of fence meant to enhance border enforcement.
Most of the 700 miles of planned fencing has been allocated to Arizona, California and New Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in an interview Monday that Texas could end up with as few as 40 or 50 miles.
"A substantial majority of the fencing will not be in Texas, but there will be some in Texas, and we anticipate adding some in Texas," Chertoff said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Border Patrol released a plan last week for 70 miles of fence in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. But Chertoff said that was only a draft.
The fence is controversial in Texas with environmental groups, local officials and some landowners opposing it, while others favor it as a way to control illegal immigration, drug trafficking and movement of terrorists.
Current plans call for the construction of a total of 370 miles of fence by the end of 2008, just over half the 700 miles Congress authorized on the 1,951-mile border.
