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TAKOMA PARK, Md. — The bill before the Senate to create a 730-mile fence across some of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico is a "terrible proposal," Gov. Bill Richardson says.

"It's repressive. It's not going to work. It's too expensive," Richardson said of the proposal to build two layers of fence on some of the border, including a portion from Columbus, N.M., to just outside El Paso.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat, also questioned the $6.6 billion fence in remarks on the Senate floor Monday.

Bingaman said he will try to offer an amendment to give the Department of Homeland Security the discretion where to decide to build fences.

"I do not think that we should be mandating over 700 miles of fencing at specific locations," said Bingaman, noting that Homeland Security already plans to install miles of vehicle barriers and as many as 1,800 watch towers.

Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, supports the fence bill.

House and Senate negotiators have already agreed to allocate $1.2 billion in a separate appropriations bill for border fences.

Richardson, who has criticized the Bush administration for not deploying more Border Patrol agents in New Mexico, commented on the fence plan after speaking at a get-out-the-Latino-vote rally for Maryland's Democratic candidate for governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.

About 200 people, many of them newly registered voters, attended the rally at a CASA of Maryland services center in a Washington suburb.

"He cares about our people," Richardson, who is Hispanic, said of O'Malley. "He cares about a sensible immigration policy, a policy that recognizes protecting our laws and border security, but also to make America a melting pot for all people."

About 2 percent of Maryland's voters are estimated to be Hispanic. In the Washington area, more Hispanics come from El Salvador than Mexico.

Richardson was on an East Coast campaign swing paid for by the Democratic Governors Association, which he chairs. He also is making stops for Democratic candidates in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maryland.

Later Monday, he was scheduled to meet with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to seek federal funding to settle water-rights claims involving tribes and pueblos.

He also attended a meeting with reporters Monday morning, sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, where Richardson claimed that Attorney General Patricia Madrid would unseat Rep. Heather Wilson, the incumbent Albuquerque Republican.

Richardson said Madrid will win "because of this Democratic wave and my get-out-the-vote operation," according to ABC's Political Note.