WASHINGTON -- A proposed 854-mile fence along the U.S. border with Mexico is in danger of becoming an extension of the Great Wall of China, Pennsylvania's Rep. Phil English warned yesterday.

He and a bipartisan group of lawmakers slammed the Department of Homeland Security for using Chinese steel products to build portions of the barrier at a time when pipe and tube plants in his district and elsewhere are struggling to compete.

"I believe it's a travesty that U.S. tax dollars have been used to buy Chinese pipe," said Mr. English, R-Erie. "Clearly, American workers ought to be the ones building this fence."

The Homeland Security Department is required to buy American products, and it did not receive a waiver for this project, said spokesman Brad Benson. He didn't have any more information last night regarding use of Chinese steel on the barrier.

During a Capitol Hall news conference, Mr. English displayed an oversized photo of the fence in San Luis, Ariz., with a metal pole in the foreground clearly displaying a "Made in China" logo. The congressman said steel worker activists from Pennsylvania recently brought him the photo.

A site evaluation determined that about 60 of more than 700 posts were Chinese-made, Mr. English said.

A year ago, President Bush signed border fence legislation that will eventually place barriers in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, all of which receive large numbers of illegal immigrants.

The cost is estimated at about $3 million per mile, Mr. Benson said. So far, the Department of Homeland Security has built about 140 miles of fence, and DHS officials hope to reach 370 miles by the end of 2008.

One of the fence's congressional champion, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said the department should have had sufficient time to contact American steel makers. "They don't have to go and get cut-rate deals to build the border fence," he said. "They have $800 million available."

A potential supplier is Wheatland Tube Division of the John Maneely Co. in Sharon, Mercer County, which has about 1,100 employees in Western Pennsylvania and has been making fence products for more than 75 years.

"We're certainly capable of producing the border fence," said William Kerins, Wheatland's president. "We have the ability to produce the product, and we have the capacity."

Over the past two years, the company has shed about 500 jobs and closed one of its Sharon plants because of competition from China. Mr. Kerins accused the Asian economic giant of unfairly undercutting prices and "dumping" pipe and tube products on the American market. He said he has petitioned the U.S. government to take action against the practice.

Chinese imports of steel tube, pipe and fittings products will reach about 3.9 million tons this year, making up about 30 percent of the U.S. market, according to Mr. English's office.

Mr. Hunter is also a lead sponsor of legislation to punish China for devaluing its currency to make its goods cheaper in the United States.

The congressional steel caucus, which includes Mr. English, has invited Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to attend an Oct. 31 hearing to discuss the issue.

"Simply put, this is outrageous, it's offensive and it's unacceptable," said Pennsylvania's Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, a caucus member.