Bush signs bill paying for new US border fence

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz, Oct 5 (Reuters) President George W Bush signed a law that will pay for hundreds of miles of new fences along the US-Mexico border, a move against illegal immigration that Republicans had sought before next month's congressional elections.

Bush had hoped to address the illegal immigration issue in a comprehensive way that would have brought beefed-up border security as well as a temporary guest-worker program allowing immigrants to work legally in the United States.

He spent months advancing the idea but failed to overcome doubts from many Republicans on Capitol Hill who derided the guest-worker program as an ''amnesty'' that would give illegal immigrants a route to citizenship.

Under the legislation, about 1.2 billion dollars would be spent during the fiscal year that began October 1 for southwest border fencing and other barriers. The money is part of a 33.8 billion dollars package for domestic security programs that are being bolstered following the September 11 attacks.

An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, many of whom entered through the porous border with Mexico.

Mexico had strongly objected to the fence, which it saw as a slap in the face to efforts during President Vicente Fox's nearly completed six-year term to negotiate an agreement with Washington on immigration.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said the fences hurt bilateral relations. ''Just the idea of a wall, a fence ... is an insult to good neighbors,'' he told a news conference yesterday.

President-elect Felipe Calderon said fences were not the solution to the illegal immigration.

''It does not resolve the problem and, I insist, it will make many Latin Americans take bigger risks, probably causing deaths,'' Calderon said on a visit to Colombia.

Republicans, hoping to hang on to control of the US Congress in November 7 elections, have been pushing border security in reaction to anger by voters, who say in some places immigrants are taking away jobs and swamping health and education services.

In a signing ceremony in Arizona, where illegal immigration is a grave concern, Bush said he still wanted a guest worker program to relieve pressure on the border with Mexico.

''The funds that Congress has appropriated are critical to our efforts to secure this border and enforce our laws. Yet we must also recognise that enforcement alone is not going to work. We need comprehensive reform that provides a legal way for people to work here on a temporary basis,'' Bush said.

The legislation will also fund increased nuclear-detection equipment at US ports and raise security standards at chemical plants.

Reuters SBA VP0710