CNSNews.com - EXCLUSIVE: Sheriff Babeu: It’s ‘An Outrage’ Obama Stopped Building Border Fence

CNSNews.com - EXCLUSIVE: Sheriff Babeu: It’s ‘An Outrage’ Obama Stopped Building Border Fence

Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Ariz., says it is "an outrage" the Obama administration has stopped building the double-layered border fence needed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Babeu is shown here speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference on April 19, 2010. (CNSNews.com photo/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) - Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Ariz., says it is “an outrage” the Obama administration has stopped building the double-fencing needed to assist the Border Patrol in securing the U.S.-Mexico border and says it is time for the United States to begin fighting illegal immigration and drug smuggling directly at the border instead of within the country where it harms American citizens and communities.

By the time Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, according to the Justice Department, only 108 miles of the 262-mile-long Arizona portion of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border had been fenced.

“We shouldn’t be fighting this battle in the interior. We should be fighting it directly on our international border,” Babeu said in an "Online With Terry Jeffrey" interview. “And it’s an outrage that our own federal government stopped building the fence.”