Chertoff, Democrats agree to weigh border fence alternatives

The House Homeland Security Committee's top Democrats and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday they will look at alternatives to building more fencing along the nation's borders, putting them at odds with the top Republican on the panel.

They also agreed that they will make a major push in the next Congress for legislation giving the department authority to distribute homeland security grants based on risk assessments.

Homeland Security ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. -- who will become chairman in January -- and Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. met Chertoff and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson for slightly over an hour on Capitol Hill.

Speaking to reporters afterward, they described the meeting as cordial and an opportunity to establish better communications heading into the new Congress.

They said they agree on several critical homeland security issues, including flexibility to use technology rather than physical fencing along the nation's borders. They said they would support more "virtual fencing," using technology such as cameras, sensors and communications equipment.

Congress passed a bill at the end of September giving the department authority to build a 700-mile double-layer fence along the border with Mexico. The legislation, which President Bush signed into law, was drafted by House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., who will become the panel's ranking member.

Thompson has said he wants to "revisit" the legislation. But after Tuesday's meeting, he gave no indication that he plans to push to repeal the authorization in the new Congress.

"I think some of us have some concerns as to whether or not the fence is the highest and most secure method of protecting the border," he said. "I think part of what we want to do is to look at that and see what other options, virtual fencing or whatever, is there so that a decision ... goes forward with all the available information at hand."

Chertoff sounded a similar theme, saying: "We think a virtual fence, which includes physical fencing in the appropriate places but also looks to 21st Century technology, is the most cost-effective and quickest and best way to get control of the border."

If the Chertoff meeting is any guide, the toughest partisan battles that Thompson, Pascrell and their allies will fight early next year might not be with the Bush administration, but with King and other outspoken Republicans who are demanding the construction of fences along the Mexican border.

In an interview, King voiced strong opposition to any repeal of the fencing legislation.

"I'm totally opposed to it," he said. "To me, that would be a breach of trust with the American people."