MEXICO CITY

Mexican Government says Border Fence Won’t be Built

Oct 4, 2006 09:08 AM MDT

Mexican President Vicente Fox’s spokesman predicts today the United States probably will never build the 700 miles of proposed fencing along the Mexican border.

Even though the U-S Congress has approved the one-point-two (B) billion-dollar project. The bill must still be signed into law by President Bush, but Mexico is lobbying the Bush to veto it — and Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar says Congress is unlikely to approve funding for it.

On Monday, the Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to Washington criticizing last week’s U.S. Senate vote to authorize the new fencing.

Yesterday, all eight parties in Mexico’s Congress signed an accord urging the government to use all the diplomatic means at its disposal to try to stop the construction of the fences.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday the United States is talking to Mexico about the issue of immigration, but he did not give details.

Aguilar said on Tuesday his country still wants a comprehensive immigration reform that would allow more people to migrate to the United States legally.