The only ominous symbol I see is the full-court press by the OBL to keep that wall/fence from going up...
Posted on 02/27/2006 8:57:03 AM PST by devane617
MEXICO CITY - ''The wall'' does not yet exist, and it might never be built, but already its 700 miles of fencing and electric sensors loom like a new Berlin Wall in the Latin American imagination.
The proposed barrier along the Mexican border was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in December and is scheduled to be debated by the Senate next month. In Spanish, they call it el muro.
El muro has been a focus of news for weeks not only in countries such as Mexico and El Salvador that are increasingly dependent on the dollars migrants send back home, but also faraway Argentina and Chile. Across the region, el muro is seen as an ominous new symbol of America's unchecked power.
''The U.S. government has fostered an atmosphere of collective paranoia, given a green light to its spies . . . and institutionalized torture,'' Salvadoran novelist Horacio Castellanos Moya said. ``The only thing missing was a wall.''
The brainchild of Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., H.R. 4437 envisions two ''layers of reinforced fencing,'' new lighting, cameras and underground sensors similar to those in place near San Ysidro. One new stretch would seal off nearly all of the 350-mile length of the Arizona-Mexico border.
The beefed-up barrier aims to bring order to the chaos caused by an estimated 1 million people crossing illegally each year.
The bill also elevates illegal crossing from a misdemeanor to a felony and includes new provisions to limit hiring of undocumented workers.
The House approved the bill by a vote of 239-182.
In the lands south of the proposed barrier, news of the vote has been greeted with expressions of confusion, sadness and official concern. On Monday, the foreign ministers of 11 Latin American countries meeting in Colombia agreed to formulate a plan to lobby the U.S. Senate to kill the plan.
Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein, whose center-right government is close to the Bush administration, made an unusually strident statement against the bill last month.
''It seems to us a real affront that a government that calls itself a friend and regional partner only wants our money and our products . . . treats our people as if they were a plague,'' Stein said.
Only a minority of commentators have suggested that Latin American governments share at least some of the blame for the disorder on the U.S. frontier.
''The diatribes (against the wall) are a poor substitute for adequate policies,'' Sergio Aguayo Quezada wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma. ``The long era of open borders is over, and the escape value is slowly closing.''
Others point out that the walls already in place for more than a decade in Tijuana; El Paso, Texas; and other border communities have driven illegal crossers into the Sonora Desert, where hundreds have died of exhaustion.
Fearing that more fences will result in more deaths, Archbishop Renato Asencio León led a prayer Mass in Ciudad Juárez against the proposal. ''We pray to the Lord that this wall not be raised,'' the archbishop said.
The president of Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights, Jose Luis Soberanes, called the proposal an act of ``idiocy.''
The Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre took a sounding of the country's artists and athletes, who unanimously condemned the fence.
''It's one more slap in the face from the gringos, an example of their cynicism,'' actress Patricia Orantes told the newspaper. ``The walls are falling now. Berlin's fell, and [the Americans] still haven't learned yet.''
Bristling over repeated comparisons across Latin America between the Sensenbrenner fence and the wall built by East German Communist leaders, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza responded with an angry letter last month.
''Comparisons of proposals to alter our border policies to the Berlin Wall are not only disingenuous and intellectually dishonest, they are personally offensive to me,'' Garza wrote in a release issued by the U.S. Embassy here. ``The Berlin Wall was built to keep its own people trapped inside, and was created by an oppressive authoritarian government.''
The United States, Garza wrote, has an inherent right to defend its security.
What would be Mexico's official response if I decided that I wanted to cross into their territory with no documentation and pretty much do as I pleased while I was there, never paying taxes, getting a driver's license, or in any way cooperating with the local authorities.
You think they might have a problem with that?
All the wall will do is make border crossing a controlled process where people will have to comply with our laws. What's wrong with that?
Exactly. They all want to come here. Poof, they're already "here". Then we can tax them and take advantage of all the plentiful resources.
Ominous works for me.
No me gustar el muro ai yai yai yai yai yai yai.
... ''We pray to the Lord that this wall not be raised,''...
Good fences make good neighbors. The worse the neighbors, the higher and stronger the wall needs to be. Build this one strong and high.
Yes and Great Wall didn't stop the Mongols from invading China (bribery did them in)!
Personally, I'm not opposed to the wall, but I'm not convinced that in it's current form, that it's the best bang for the buck (see Maginot Line during WW2, Atlantic Wall, etc). Do we know for a fact that this is what our border guys want?
"'The U.S. government has fostered an atmosphere of collective paranoia, given a green light to its spies... and institutionalized torture,' Salvadoran novelist Horacio Castellanos Moya said. 'The only thing missing was a wall.'"
Walls to keep people out are different than those to keep people in. The former for sovereignty, the latter for slavery.
The fact that the leftist quoted above does not acknowledge the concept of popular sovereignty indicates that he does not respect America's. If I had to guess, he's a One Worlder.
The problem with zero borders is that what you came for, eventually, dies away.
Where's that American colonial spirit when you need it? There used to be a time when things went in the opposite direction.
I've often thought that's what we should do... but then we would have to give all the conquered mexicans welfare.
Walls don't work in stoping military adanvces anymore. Which is why the Atlantic Wall failed. However they work great at stoping immigrants.
"Foreboding" and "electric" sound good too.
Build it . . . . . . . and they won't come.
Yeah, unlike now.
ping
Our legislators pass a law, signed by the President setting forth immigration quotas which reflect that amount of immigrants which are assimilable. All of these immigrant aspirants are then assimilated into U.S. society. They are called "legal" immigrants. By definition all others are not assimilable and are "illegal" immigrants. It's very easy to understand if one cares to. There is nothing racist about it.
Berlin Wall -- constructed to keep their population from escaping that dismal place
US Border Wall -- keep the scumbags out.
Bit of a difference there!
Not the Belin wall....but the Great Wall of China.....
build it to keep out the hordes of invaders from the south.
The only ominous symbol I see is the full-court press by the OBL to keep that wall/fence from going up...
1). Fine all employers that hire illegals $15000/illegal.
2). Set up a nation-wide 1-800-illegal number for good citizens to report employers that hire illegal aliens.
3). Pass a law that says: Anchor babies are no longer granted citizenship to illegal alien parents.
4). Build the fence.
"'It's one more slap in the face from the gringos, an example of their cynicism,' actress Patricia Orantes told the newspaper. 'The walls are falling now. Berlin's fell, and [the Americans] still haven't learned yet.'"
Mexican actress? Mexian elite, I take it. And a racist, too.
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