The idea that one can’t build a patrol road and a fence near a river is absurd.
There are hundreds of counties in the United States with difficult hilly and riverine terrain that have managed to build a road near a riverbank (and if you can build a road, you can build a fence next to the road).
Obviously, there could be breaks periodically for access to the river, which would at least serve as choke points to monitor what was going on at the border.
It’s one excuse after the other, because the businesses that use cheap Mexican labor to compete unfairly and shift their full costs onto others (not to mention the $15 billion drug cartels) have lots of $$$ to fill the coffers of anyone willing to mouth these excuses.
“The idea that one can’t build a patrol road and a fence near a river is absurd.”
not saying you can’t. Just that Perry seems to be against even the bare minimum and on top of that, tuition breaks and no e-verify
Rich Lowry writes
“Perry can ostentatiously send Texas Rangers to the border and lambaste the federal government’s failures, but none of it matters if it’s relatively easy for illegals to find a job. Another border state, Arizona, implemented the E-Verify system requiring employers to check the immigration status of prospective employees. It led to a dramatic reduction in the population of illegals, many of whom have, no doubt, decamped to Texas. So long as he doesn’t implement E-Verify, Perry is shooting holes in the hull of the U.S.S. Enforcement and demanding that the feds bail faster.”
The cool thing about today’s age is that you can use google maps to ACTUALLY SEE the border. I urge you to go look at it, and you’ll understand why you can’t just throw up a fence “along the border”.
I wish I knew how to post a picture of a small google map section.
BTW, I also found that it is actually SHORTER by a few miles to drive from brownsville to Del Rey by going through Mexico (although it is much quicker to stay in the United States).
Commerce doesn’t respect borders either. Texas is a major exporter of goods and services to Mexico. People in Texas work in Mexico, people in Mexico work in Texas — daily commuters, just like people live in New Jersey and work in New York.
There are roads near parts of the river. But it’s just a river. Do you have a river nearby? Go walk it — do you see places where people’s land is on the river? where there are parks? Where it’s marshy? where there are woods? Are there whole communities based around the river?
That’s what it is like in Texas. Imagine going to those property owners and telling them you were going to take their land, tear down the trees, and build a 30-foot fence and perimeter road that would cut them all off from the river. Got a dock and a fishing boat? Too bad. A nice beach area? Tough. Your house too close? We’re taking it away.
Rick Perry clearly wants to be President. And even if he LOVED illegal immigrants, which he DOES NOT, he doesn’t need to oppose a border fence for that — illegals don’t care much about the border fence one way or another, they will find ways to get here. So WHY do you think he opposes a border fence, KNOWING that it hurts his chances to win an election, and saying he would BUILD a fence would HELP him?
It is clear that he opposes a full-border fence because it is a BAD idea. It is the WRONG solution. It is a sound-bite masquerading as a fix. We should be smarter than that.