Newt Gingrich Pledges To Build Double Fence Along Entire Mexico Border

As other candidates attack him for being too soft on unauthorized immigration, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich signed a pledge on Thursday to build a double fence along the entirety of the southern border of the United States.

The former Speaker of the House promised in the Americans for Border Security pledge to construct a complete double border fence between the United States and Mexico by the end of 2013, should he become president. Only one other GOP presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), has signed the pledge so far.

Gingrich promises on his campaign website to "control the border" by Jan. 1, 2014, implying that President Barack Obama lacks the "will" to stop unauthorized immigration from Mexico.

"The United States must control its border. It is a national security imperative," the website reads. "Every nation has the right to control its border. Historically, every country that has been determined to control their border has been able to do so. Controlling the border is a matter of resources and will."

Gingrich has taken heat in recent weeks for his immigration stances, particularly after he called during a GOP debate last week for a more "humane" policy to deal with the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants. He said there should be a way to allow some undocumented immigrants, particularly those with long-standing ties to the United States, to stay, as well as allowing for more guest worker visas to allow people to work legally.

Bachmann attacked him for those comments the day after the GOP debate, telling PBS's "NewsHour" that Gingrich wants to add "powerful magnets" for people to come to the United States illegally.

"He probably has the most liberal position on illegal immigration of any of the candidates in the race," Bachmann said on the program.

Gingrich has since been on the defense on immigration, attempting to boost his tough-on-immigration bona fides by decrying "amnesty" and praising a South Carolina law that mimics Arizona's S.B. 1070 by allowing police to ask about immigration status.

He also spoke about the border, reiterating earlier this week his website's promise to secure the border by 2014, in part by sending half of the employees of the Department of Homeland Security to Southwest border states.

Nearly all of the major GOP presidential candidates have called for a fence along the southern border, with the exception of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has said it would be too expensive to build and maintain. Continuing upkeep of the current border fence, without additional fencing, will cost an estimated $6.5 billion between 2009 and 2019, according to a 2009 report from the Government Accountability Office.

Americans for Securing the Border Chairman Van D. Hipp Jr. said in a statement Thursday that the pledge "is the best way to hold the politicians' 'feet to the fire' and ensure that a secure double fence is built along our southern border, thereby making America safer."

"Newt Gingrich has heard our challenge and will sign 'The Pledge' to support the construction of a date certain, secure double fence across the US border with Mexico prior to the end of 2013," Hipp said. "Speaker Gingrich is no 'Johnny come lately' when it comes to border security."

Comments

[railrunner]

12:39 AM on 12/12/2011

I dont mind anyone from any where comming to the US but only if they do it the legal way.I think if you come here in any other way then you should be sent back to where you came from with no ands ifs or butts.If they truely want to make the border secure then they need to put up two fences and put an area between the fences that is mined accross the whole border then you just put up signs letting everyone know that if they try to cross they will die after a while they will have to cross in the legal manner or risk death and for those that get thru the minefield have auto guns on the walls that will take care of anything that gets within 100 yards of the wall

[F1guy76]

07:50 PM on 12/08/2011

Funny thing is that the people that whine about illegal immigration would never take the jobs that illegals take.. Lets see how many of the whiners are willing to go and pick up oranges for minimum wage, or go and clean up public toilets, or do jobs like that... So, unless you are willing to do that then shut up, cause that's what most illegals have to do in order to make a living and survive. I seriously don't think they are coming and taking supervising, or managing type positions, and if they do, then they're not illegals. It's sad to admit that this, my country, is one of the most racist nations in the world. I was blind and thought it didn't happen until a friend told me her experiences. We don't realize how bad it is, but it's bad. And a lot of folks who have racist upbringings just used immigration issues to camouflage their true feelings. That's why people like Palin, Bachmann, and Limbaugh have supporters.. in the thousands.. This guy Newt is just another one of those.. He's saying let's try to be humane, but it's transparent that he's doing to get the support of minorities, and then,,, Welcome to the 50s suckers!!

[Tom in FTL]

10:51 AM on 12/06/2011

The simple way to stop illegals coming into this country is to check their status before they are hired for a job. We should have a database with all the information on it and it should be easily accessed by any employer. If the rides at Disney were closed, how many people would want to be there? Same thing applies here. Quit hiring illegals and they will quit coming. Fences won't do a thing but put us further in debt.

[Cassandra Velasco]

02:27 AM on 12/05/2011

Now that known numbers of illega limmigrants are in decline, it's time to lock the gates after the horse has been stolen. Never mind that most of the Mexican illegals are hard working, desperate people, willing to scrub and do stoop labor to have a better life.Worsening economic conditions north of the border are NOT their fault; Bush's taxcuts for the wealthy are far more worthy of blame. But illegal immigrants, unprotected and lacking political power,are an ideally handy scapegoat for a demagogue. Both Gingrich and Bachman want to spend billions on border fences full of razor wire, machinegun guards, snarling dogs etc. Perhaps a moat full of crocodiles would do even better than reports of unemplyment and destitution in America, which are causing more and more potential border-jumpers to have second thoughts....

[pynecastle]

10:48 PM on 12/04/2011

Any chance of having it skirt Texas on the north side?

[Brighton Rose]

12:14 PM on 12/04/2011

If you want to do something productive with our military, go in and claim Mexico as part of the US.

[omobob]

09:04 AM on 12/04/2011

Fences don’t work. This happened where the fence is the highest, most patrolled and has sophisticated surveillance. I suppose Newt thinks a "double" fence will be twice as effective?

> U.S. authorities said they discovered a major cross-border tunnel Tuesday, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico.
The discovery comes less than two weeks after U.S. authorities found a 400-yard passage linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana, seizing 17 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border. It was equipped with lighting and ventilation.

It was on all the media outlets, including this one. Newt remains clueless as he repeats the failures of the last 40 years called the War on Drugs. Meanwhile the US pays the cartels 11 to 13 billion dollars per year. Legalization of marijuana is the first step towards denying funds to the violent North Mexican cartels

[Chi Man Sam]

05:40 AM on 12/04/2011

At about 1million and a half a mile, how will
he propose tp pay for it, cut spending for spending.
Layoff more teachers, firefighters and police, maybe
some socail programs also, but whatever happens
do not ask the rich to up a cent, those poor have
suffered enough.

[Tom in FTL]

10:53 AM on 12/06/2011

Maybe asking Newt to pony up the money is the answer.

[CITYTERRACE63]

03:01 AM on 12/04/2011

Building a 2000 mile fence is not the answer. I like the idea of strategic fencing. They did this in San Diego in the 1990's and pushed the illegals east into Imperial County where alot of them die making the trip because of the treacherous terrain and the 125 degree heat in the summer. We can do this along the entire border. Fence in the easy places to cross but leave the burning deserts and rugged terrain open and put air assets to monitor those areas and you can create a illegal immigrant corridor and if they survive the trip the border patrol will be waiting at the end of that corridor to arrest them and send them back.

[Ohioliberal]

08:14 PM on 12/03/2011

Questions, will the contract be sourced to American companies? Will the actual labor be sourced to American workers?

[Seven Teenatheart]

11:13 PM on 12/03/2011

Back in 2006 and American company used illegal immigrant workers as about 1/3 of their workforce.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6626823

[Brighton Rose]

12:09 PM on 12/04/2011

How ironic....America would hire Mexicans to build the fence. It isn't out of the question.

[Seven Teenatheart]

12:53 PM on 12/03/2011

A new study shows that only about 15% of illegal immigrants have been here less than 5 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/immigrants-pew-study-_n_1126129.html

So it seems that the fence would be a bit late, even if the idea had been shown to be effective.

[Viper1st]

07:55 PM on 12/03/2011

So it seems that if a fence is not built ~ there'll be 25 million illegals in the USA, unauthorized, by 2021

[Seven Teenatheart]

08:44 PM on 12/03/2011

There are some flaws in that theory
The study says that %15 of illegals living in the US have been here less than 5 years.
But you can't extrapolate a rate at which people are immigrating based on that alone.
Nor does the study break down their nationality or method of entering the country.

[Brent Christiansen]

10:45 AM on 12/03/2011

The most effective way to control Legal Immigration from Mexico is the Obama policy of destroying our economy!

[Tom in FTL]

11:01 AM on 12/06/2011

I guess you think the Republicans have the answer? The Republicans are the ones who got us where we are today thanks to GW Bush. Weren't the Republicans crying "where are the jobs?" when they got elected. Now, I ask you how many jobs are the party of NO putting up? Republicans love to protect their big money backers but offer nothing to anyone else. Sure, they want to eliminate unions and regulations on their big business buddies but they are the first ones to farm out the jobs to mexico, india, china, wherever they can save money and screw the American worker.

[D-Driller]

11:41 PM on 12/02/2011

Another fence-builder... When are these guys going to learn? Fences won't stop illegal immigration - hefty fines and jailtime to companies hiring them will stop it. Letting these AZ-style laws through that allow the cops to bust illegals will also help. We don't need a fence - too expensive and easy to bypass. Once we have solved the illegal alien problem, and they have left in droves back across the border, I do think we should then patrol the border with Reaper drones and infantry untis on rotation to take care of any cartel members or others crossing back over.

[Nosepuede]

10:45 PM on 12/02/2011

a wonderful idea. really a better jobs bill than any proposed to date

[mrtimmaulden]

10:03 PM on 12/02/2011

Newt will no doubt get the "pro-adultery" vote when Cain folds tommorrow.