Israel's security fence/wall
Above you see the patrol Jeep and the very nice access roads for quick response to intruders
Under construction in the below photo
Posted on 08/23/2005 6:29:05 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
DES MOINES United States Congressman Steve King says the U.S. should build a wall betweeen itself and Mexico, topped with razor wire.King spoke to a group at the downtown Marriot on Monday about toughening immigration laws and the strict enforcement of laws already on the books.
King says building a two thousand-mile-long fence would cost about 680 (m) million dollars, and it would slow border crossings. King says he wants candidates running for president to have clear and aggressive plans for dealing with immigration.
Two of the four states are run by Democrats and the other two are run by RINOs. I don't think we can count on any of these states to build good fences.
Illegal immigration is not just impacting the border states. Illegal aliens are showing up everywhere. Constitutionally it is a Federal responsibility to protect the 50 states from invasion and as a practical matter it is impacting all of us.
The second half of your statement has merit.
WAKE UP MR KING!
What we need is to stop giving them the incentive to come here in the first place.
My proposal is a double-fence, privately funded and patrolled by packbots, or else Minutemen on four-wheelers. It would be awesome if landowners along the border could be persuaded to sell a 12' easement, without invoking imminent domain at all. Just think!
Even if an effective fence cost $50 billion or more, it's a small price to stop the invasion of our country and small potatos compared to the billions in pork regularly squandered in D.C.
Future calls for violence will be met with swift and lengthy suspensions. You've been warned.
They removed mine too. What's up with that?
Israel's security fence/wall
Above you see the patrol Jeep and the very nice access roads for quick response to intruders
Under construction in the below photo
"Best estimates for a truly secure (Israel-style) wall are $8 billion just to build it."
Where did you get this? The San Diego-area wall made of long concrete posts next to each other, topped by barbed wire, cost 1.7 million a mile. That's 3.3 billion for the whole 1945 mile border with Mexico.
Here's an article with a picture of the wall I'm talking about:
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=113823
"Not going to happen."
And why is that exactly? The money is about the same as a month or two of the Iraq operation- we manage to scrape that up. How about using that to actually protect our own borders? 3.3 billion is chicken feed for Congress.
As far as the political realities, border security is much more feasible politically than, say, strict employer enforcement or mass deportations of existing Hispanics. Heck, the Hispanics who are already here would love to see us keep the competition out.
I've thought about this carefully and the border wall is doable. The biggest enemy of the border wall is the thinking that it's NOT doable for a great country like ours. It absolutely is. It won't keep them all out, but it will help a great deal.
The fence is a good idea, but if we made it tougher for illegals who got here, then there would be less incentive to come over the border in the first place. Illegals should be denied welfare, drivers licenses, schooling for their kids etc. and if caught should not be given a free bus ride home, but rather jail time or at least some kind of sentence in a labor camp.
I didn't see the deleted replies, but for future reference, does proposing use of U.S. military or other government force constitute a "call for violence"?
If the Israelis can, we can.
And if the above WALL is too 'offense', how about one like this..... we go 'old school', like the Joilet Prison
Naturally, no windows or doors on the outside
Going past that place as a kid on Sunday car rides scared the be-jeezus out of me. 'prolly' kept me from a life of crime :-)
The $8B estimate was for an Israel-style wall, as I mentioned. Several levels, and all that. Much more secure than the San Diego wall. But we'll use your estimate.
$3.3B to build it. How much to man it? Patrol it? Maintain it? How many more billions per year will it cost to truly seal off the border?
And when I say it's not going to happen, I don't mean to imply that I don't want it to happen. I'm just saying that no Congressman, no Senator and no President is going to give up any of their own personal pork to pay for it. And none of them will put their power behind it. Spending money for the troops is one thing. Allocating billions of dollars for a border wall is quite another. None of them have the stomach for it.
Certainly W will never allow it, and who in Congress will stand up to him?
I wish he could be my congressman.
"Congress voted Saturday to give NASA all of the $16.2 billion it sought for 2005, money not only to return the space shuttles to flight but also to start designing a replacement spaceship and planning moon missions."
Geez, we could have a huge improvement in border security for decades for about the cost of one year of the useless space shuttle and space station? Let's do it!
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