Berlin Wall Comes to the Southern Border

Mexican Foreign Secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez says it may go to the United Nations to challenge US plans to build hundreds of miles of fences on its southern border.

The Foreign Secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said the plan was offensive.

The US President, George Bush, yesterday signed a homeland security funding bill that includes $1.2 billion - $1.6 billion for fencing along the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants and criminals sneaking over.

The outgoing Mexican President, Vicente Fox, has called the plan "shameful" and compared it to the Berlin Wall. Mr Fox has spent his six-year term lobbying for a new guest worker program and an amnesty for Mexicans working illegally in the US.

On Thursday, all eight parties in Mexico's Congress joined forces to exhort Mr Fox to use all diplomatic means to try to stop the construction of the fence.

Mr Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, was quoted as saying "There is no money to build it, so it won't be built," he said.

The president-elect, Felipe Calderon, who takes office on December 1, has also attacked the plans.

"One could stop more migrants with a kilometre of new roads and development than with a wall," he said.

There are an estimated 11 million Mexicans in the US.

We could save money building the fence if we hire more illegal immigrants to build it.