Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says she would like to have flexibility on the proposal to designate $1.5 billion for a border fence, under the immigration reform law. But, KJZZ’s Dennis Lambert reports Arizona’s U.S. Senators are refusing to go along with the idea.
Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake say there is no chance Napolitano will get flexibility or control of the money for the border fence. McCain says those funds will be designated for fence construction.
“Secretary Napolitano has been singularly unhelpful through this entire process. Secretary Napolitano has been incredibly unhelpful, so we will just disregard her views, unfortunately," McCain said.
Senator Flake says he understands why Napolitano wants flexibility on the funding for the fence, but that Congress will not yield on it,
“No head of a department worth their salt would not want flexibility, I mean obviously you always want flexibility but the Congress, we have some requirements as well," Flake said.
McCain says Napolitano has been less than enthusiastic about extending the fence and he’ll make sure there is no flexibility on where that money is to be spent.