Sen. John Kerry on the fence . . .<br />By Boston Herald editorial staff<br />Saturday, May 20, 2006 <br /><br />Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), fresh from the ongoing Senate debate over an immigration bill, offered the following explanation of his vote in favor of 370 miles of fence at the U.S.-Mexican border (estimated cost $3 million a mile) at yesterdays New England Council breakfast: <br /> <br /> I voted for it because, first of all, a lot of it is the repair of the existing fence. A lot of it is just in the Arizona area, where we have the worst problem, the most numbers of people coming over. <br /> <br /> And if you go down, and you look at the numbers of border [patrol] people that we have right now, and even the numbers - I put in an amendment, which passed, and we raised the number up to about 3,000 [additional] that have to be trained and put out there. But even when we get there, were only going to have a couple of people or so per mile, which is simply not enough. So were way behind, in terms of the training and production of people. And in the short term, I think this can serve us well. <br /> <br /> If I were making the long-term decision, Id announce, you know, hopefully its a temporary measure, and we can take it down as soon as we have enough people, and weve established a process where weve reduced the level. <br /> <br /> And I think that should be Americas goal, absolutely and positively. But in the temporary, weve got to have a comprehensive approach everywhere, and change forms of behavior everywhere. It begins with enforcement. Enforcement not just on the border, but enforcement against employers who are hiring people illegally, which is supposed to be illegal. <br /> <br /> That clarifies everything, now doesnt it? <br /> <br /> Who says this guy doesnt have what it takes to make another run for president?
