Chertoff Pledges To Fight Lawsuits Targeting Border Security

WASHINGTON (AP) – Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vows to fight all lawsuits against his efforts to secure the border — ranging from building fences to requiring new driver’s licenses.

Chertoff blame lawsuits as part of the reason the federal government has had trouble getting control of the border for the past 30 years. One such suit blocked Homeland Security from using Social Security information.

Another tried to prevent fence construction on the Arizona-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Chertoff hinges some of the agency’s future border security work, such as building a total 670-mile border fence, on getting more money from Congress.

But negotiators who drafted a compromise defense spending bill stripped the measure of 3 billion dollars in emergency border security money.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)