The federal government denounced the U.S. Congress on Friday for approving the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, while human rights groups said it would lead to more deaths.

The U.S. House of Representatives late Thursday approved building 700 miles (1,120 kilometers) of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, giving priority for construction in Laredo, Texas. The city is across the border from Nuevo Laredo, where warring drug cartels have been blamed for more than 140 killings this year.

The measure is part of a wider immigration enforcement bill that the U.S. Congress was likely to vote on late Friday.

President Vicente Fox´s spokesman Rubén Aguilar said comprehensive immigration reform including a guest worker program is the only way to curb the flow of illegal migration.

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"A migratory reform that only addresses security will not resolve the bilateral immigration problem," Aguilar said at a news conference Friday. "It is indispensable to establish legal, secure and ordered migration. Our countrymen make an enormous contribution to the U.S. economy."

Border experts say existing barriers along heavily crossed sections of the border have not stopped migrants from crossing, and instead have pushed them to more desolate, dangerous areas.

More than 415 people died crossing the border illegally during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, breaking the previous record of 383 deaths during the same period ending in 2000, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Extending the fence will only force migrants to look for more isolated areas to cross, said Arturo Solís, president of the Center for Border Studies and Promotion of Human Rights in Reynosa. "It only pushes migration to more dangerous crossings and more migrants will die trying to enter the United States," he said.

"There was a lot of criticism about the Berlin Wall, and the wall that Israel is building along its border with Palestine, and now it´s happening here," Solís added. "These are only obstacles between two nations that have business ties, friendly ties."

The U.S. immigration bill was nearly derailed Thursday when several Republicans said they opposed it because it did not include a guest worker program, which Fox has been lobbying for since he came to power in 2000.

U.S. President George W. Bush urged Congress almost two years ago to enact a guest worker program that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country temporarily to fill jobs not wanted by Americans. He repeated that message during a recent visit to the Mexican border.

As well as building a wall, the bill requires all U.S. employers to check the legal status of their workers. There are about 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States, and about half are Mexican, according to U.S. authorities.

The bill also orders the Defense and Homeland Security departments to plan the use of military technology to stop illegal crossings.

Supporters include Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo. He said what would be "the best Christmas present to the American people is pictures of concrete being poured" for the fence.