Posted on 01/27/2006 7:24:10 AM PST by RS
"U.S. agents had been investigating the possibility of an elaborate drug-smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego for more than a year, but couldn't find it despite using military equipment so advanced it's classified"
~snip
"This tunnel beats them all, said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge of the San Diego office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "
~snip
"People are always going to find a way around us, he said."
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
This is the 21st tunnel they have found. I think they need a backhoe to go along the border and uncover the rest.
Travis, a fence won't stop people from sneaking into the country. In fact I don't even bother traveling on top of the ground anymore. I just tunnel everywhere I go. /sarcasm
THIS is why people pushing for the billion dollar boondoggle of The Fence are going in the wrong direction.
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
1. The act of invading; the act of encroaching upon the rights or possessions of another; encroachment; trespass.
You're missing a couple of glaring points:
1. Increased enforcement made the digging of this fairly sophisticated tunnel necessary.
2. We found it.
Otay Mesa is a part of the enormous San Diego County, of which the City of San Diego is a part. Same tunnel.
How did they find the tunnel?
Me too. In fact, road traffic is so bad here, I just tunnel everywhere, since it's so easy and just as quick.
/ sarcasm
Hahaha :-)
BTTT.
That "fence" will be quite effective against this sort of thing if we do it properly and sink a steel-reinforced concrete wall 30 feet into the ground.
To supplement this we should treat the tunnels as enemy military installations and summarily execute anyone coming out of them.
Mega Ultra Godzilla BTTT....right on!
guess the Israelis are dumbasses too by that logic
and the East Germans were too
fences are a great start!
You argument is a classic rhetorical ploy. It usually, not always, comes from folks who would like to retain the status quo but don't want to make that argument directly. That argument holds perfection up as the standard and then argues that, because we cannot be perfect, we should do nothing at all.
In reality, nothing is perfect and, if we followed this approach, we would throw up our hands and never do anything. The leftist approach to Reagan's Star Wars and to the ongoing missle defense program is a great example of this. In short, that argument was: "It won't knock down every missle every time. Therefore, we should not defend ourselves against missles."
That said, an argument about the realitive effectiveness and the cost of the fence is appropriate. But the argument from non-perfection is usually an attempt to avoid engaging directly in this argument because the proponent thinks he will lose it.
I think the other poster who responded to you had it pretty locked: (1) The fence stops almost all illegal aliens; and (2) It greatly increases the cost of and chance of capture for druggies. I would add to that, it greatly increases the cost of and chance of capture of terrorists trying to come across.
That post #32 is a good one with a good point. Haven't seen your posts before, but keep it up.
Why don't they just stake out the US end of the tunnel and grap the perps and the cargo as they emerge?
I wonder how many loads they'd send over before they figured out that the previous runners weren't coming back?
Why spend all the money on the backhoe to bust these tunnels? Just plug the US end, vent natural gas into them and light 'em off.
Prefferably when the dopers were about halfway through the bloody thing.
Kinda like clearing your field of woodchucks.
Wouldn't the Banditos at the "back door" be in for a spectacular surprise!?
Or do what the Krauts used to do with the tunnels that our POWs dug after they discovered them - use them as community septic tanks.
I read yesterday that this tunnel was 80 feet deep.
But if they are resorting to tunnels than we are clearly winning. Why do you think that Vincete Fox is so upset? Why do you think the US Chamber of Commerce thinks the fence is such a bad idea? The answer is that fences work.
"(1) The fence stops almost all illegal aliens;"
Almost all illegal aliens would be stopped by strict enforcement of existing laws, including the deportation of ALL illegals in the U.S.
"and (2) It greatly increases the cost of and chance of capture for druggies."
So it simply increases their cost of doing business - this is not a solution and the existing fencing is already accomplishing this.
"I would add to that, it greatly increases the cost of and chance of capture of terrorists trying to come across."
Treking across the border is done by people with no or little money, just when was the last time a person with access to large funding got caught in the desert ?
It's got to be damn expensive to build a tunnel that deep... a lot more expensive than finding it and eliminating it. And over time it will only get easier for us, while every use of such a tunnel increases the risk for them. If that's the game, I have a high degree of confidence we will come out the winners of it.
Re: "...I think they need a backhoe to go along the border and uncover the rest."
Or the occasional subterranian ordnance detonation here and there, where they like to dig their rat-holes.
Like the Geologists use for echo-sounding for underground rock formations.
Or make the space between the fences a free-fire zone for mortar practice, much as we do in the Korean DMZ.
Then fill in the trenches formed by the collapsing tunnels and say an Ave for any drug runners who might be intered therein.
"we have a President who knows that the fight must take place as far away as possible, "
How far? To where? The battle is in our streets, in our neighborhoods, and in our businesses. We don't have enforcement of our current laws or our borders. Obviously border patrol and border enforcement works or else they wouldn't be trying to hide their activities underground.
Re: "....it DOES slow them down and make discovering them easier!"
Kinda like wrapping barbed wire around the stair bannister.
It might not stop Granny from sliding down the rail...
But it sure will slow her down some!
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