WASHINGTON – President Bush's budget includes enough money to build only half the U.S.-Mexico border fence Congress demanded last fall, leaving supporters of a 700-mile barrier seething Monday and immigration advocates shrugging that it was just an election-year ploy.With 75 miles of fencing already in place, the $1 billion in extra money proposed for border infrastructure would be used to build 150 miles of fence by the end of this year and 370 miles by the time Mr. Bush leaves office in early 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. That's far less than the 700 miles Congress approved last fall and Mr. Bush signed into law. "We are committed to the right fencing at the right place at the right time," Mr. Chertoff said during a briefing about his department's $46.4 billion budget proposal.
Mr. Bush has called for a "virtual fence" that would include barriers, cameras, unmanned surveillance aircraft and sensors, but critics say his reluctance to build the full physical fence demanded by Congress shows he's not serious about cracking down on illegal immigration.