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.
Do what they do in Louisiana...chain gangs.
The Great Wall of China is starting to make sense ;)
The comparison may be more apt than you realize. The Great Wall didn't work - the invaders got in anyway.
Relax, I was just kidding...the wording just sort of sounded funny to me. I'm on your side.
We the people want something done about illegal immigration.
A vast majority in the political branch apparently do not. It seems to depend on whether or not they have signed on with the CFR.
Our "leaders" are not listening to the majority of the American people who are fed up.
CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada [Bye Bye USA]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1444055/posts
~~sigh~~
Then my "double fence with rabid coyotes, cranky grannies and irate ranchers in the middle" solution may work better. ;)
Yeah.
I say a fence or wall, w/ security cameras and motion sensors at regular intervals.
With all the money we blow on stupid stuff in this country, no one can tell me we can't afford that.
No offense but - so what?
Do you have point, 'cept nope, can't (won't) be done'.
Of course I have a point. I've said it before in this thread, way back in post 14:
I'd much rather see us eliminate incentives for illegals to come here, such as heavy fines for businesses that knowingly hire illegals. Choke off the jobs, and that will stem the tide a little. Change the laws to eliminate "anchor babies," and that will stem the tide a little more. Make anyone caught here illegally permanently ineligible for citizenship.
To keep the illegals out, we first need to make the nation a little less attractive for them. That plus border enforcement will do more than any fence.
You should read the whole thread. I have never advocated for illegal immigration, so listing the problems that illegals cause is quite beside the point.
W will never allow a wall to be built, and who exactly will stand up to him on this issue? And while there would certainly be savings in some areas, most of the expenses you list aren't in the federal budget. So that means new taxes, since you can't seriously believe that any Congressman, Senator or President will give up even a scrap of his own personal pork to pay for this.
On this very thread I have proposed measures that would help stem the tide, and actually have a chance of passing, unlike the tens of billions of dollars that will never be allocated to build, maintain and man a wall. That's my point.
No problemo......;)
"Best estimates for a truly secure (Israel-style) wall are $8 billion just to build it"
As far as I'm concerned, at the federal level 8 bil is chicken feed.
As you say, we spend money on a lot of stupid stuff.
But we won't stop spending money on the stupid stuff even if we build a fence, so what taxes shall we raise to get the tens of billions of dollars that the fence will cost?
Two thousand miles is an awfully long wall. Just building a fence won't solve the problem, even if we could afford it.
I agree. I don't care if someone wants to come to the US to work. I would be here in a minute if I lived in Mexico. The problem is the 'free' services and not just to immigrants. The free medical, free education, free food, free housing and any other 'FREE' items need to be done away with and we would come to appreciate everyone that wants to work and pay their own way. But if we are going to build a wall, let the captured illegals work for a week or two building it before we ship them back.
Secure the border with Mexico with a High Tech Fence, and cut out 99% of the Illegal crossings.
And there might even be a net savings on personnel costs for Border Agents.
Tunneling might be a problem, too. Strict surveillance using the best technologies, prosecution of offenders. A fence. It all needs to be there, and not just at the border with Mexico.
I'm with you, partly:
One big step would cut illegals by 2/3s, I'll bet:
Tax money transfers to Mexico at about 25%
Next big step:
Only children born to parents both of whom are US citizens are automatically granted citizenship.
But as for giving business owners law-enforcement responsibilities:
I thought that's why we had police in the first place?
If you will not protect yourself - WHY would you expect anyone to do it for you?
I'm with you on taxing money transfers to Mexico. I can't agree on requiring both parents of children to be citizens. I think one parent is sufficient. But the spirit is the same.
Where did I say that I wanted to give business owners law-enforcement responsibilities? I said I'd fine businesses that knowingly hire illegals. That's not such a burden on businesses, since they need proof of employability now anyway.
I maintain we can afford it. In fact, I maintain we can't afford NOT to. To me, not doing so is akin to building a big beautiful new home - complete w/ all the fixin's - and then saying "Door locks are going to cost me $50 /ea?!. Forget it!"
Also, why wouldn't it solve the problem? Assuming the fence / wall, etc. is reasonably impervious, how would that not stop the problem.
Before you say "it won't be impervious", consider the Israelis, the Berlin Wall, etc... One or two people might slip through here or there, but not millions.
The Israeli wall is less than 500 miles long. The Berlin wall wasn't even 100 miles. We're talking about a border nearly 2,000 miles in length. There's a slight difference of scale between them, isn't there?
I'm not arguing against a wall. I'm just saying that it won't be as easy, or as cheap, as some people seem to think. And then even if we do wall off the southern border, what's to stop the illegals from coming in through the porous Canadian border?
And if we're going to advocate this wall, we need to talk about where we're going to raise the money for it. And since no Congressman, Senator or President will give up his own personal pork to pay for it, we're talking about raising taxes to cover the tens of billions of dollars this thing'll cost to build, man, patrol and maintain.
A wall is only part of the solution. We need to decrease the incentives that bring the illegals here as well. Eliminate "anchor babies," make all illegals permanently ineligible to even visit the US again (much less gain citizenship) and fine the heck out of businesses that knowingly hire illegals. That *plus* increased border security (which may or may not include an Israeli-style wall) is the only way we'll solve this problem.
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