KCBD, NewsChannel 11 Lubbock |Gov't: Border fence to cost $6.5B over 20 years
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Associated Press - September 17, 2009 10:25 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - A government audit released today says it will cost taxpayers $6.5 billion over the next 20 years to maintain fencing along the U.S-Mexico border.
The Government Accountability Office report says the Obama administration does not have a way to evaluate whether the investment has helped control illegal immigration.
The GAO study says the $6.5 billion price tag is in addition to the $2.4 billion that's been spent to build more than 600 miles of fence along the southwest border.
The fence is a Bush administration initiative that has faced several delays and cost increases.
Officials have said, depending on funding, that the whole southwestern border -- except for a stretch at Big Bend National Park in Texas -- would be covered by fencing or technology by 2014.
GAO says a more likely completion estimate is 2016.
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