Sessions introduces leglislation to "fence off Mexico"

Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Mobile) has introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate to crack down on illegal immigration. His legislation includes a proposal to build a physical barrier stretching from California to Texas.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government should build a 2,000-mile fence along the border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions said Friday.

Sessions, a second-term Republican, introduced legislation to make it harder for people to enter the country without permission, and also make it easier to deport those already in.

The bill would grow the nation's entire immigration-related bureaucracy by adding border patrol agents, prosecutors, detention beds, judges, surveillance equipment and workplace investigators - all with an eye toward cracking down on undocumented immigrants. ...

The Senate bill is sponsored by Sessions, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Some sections of the bill are similar to one introduced earlier this month by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and they could wind up as companion bills.

There were about 10.3 million illegal aliens in the U.S. last year. An estimated 35,000 of those are here in Alabama.