FENCES THAT WORK:
Posted on 03/12/2006 4:05:09 AM PST by Borax Queen
Ping.
Wonder why the eco freaks aren't screaming about this? We need to get them riled up so that they can be at war with some of their own allies about this.
It sounds to me more like putting up barriers to ATV riders than stopping illegals.
This article really points out the extensive damage caused by the constant traffic at the border. I guess the Sierra Club is still ignoring this.
The only part of the article that sort of ticked me off was the following, as if we're only out to get people who are "just trying to support our families."
"We're just trying to support our families," he [Jimenez] said.
Hoping to keep people like Jimenez out of the country, the House of Representatives last year approved 698 miles of fencing across the U.S.-Mexican border.
Good morning, DD! I noticed the exact same thing you did, lol.
This was one of the largest blocks of land for the unusual cactus and many Sonoran Desert creatures. The bombing range, wildlife refuge, and national monument have inter-agency agreements for migration and conservation.
I'm surprised how the enviro groups have been silent about the (literal) trashing of this and other border areas. Obviously, it's not very safe to fish, hunt, hike, camp, or do other outdoor activities there anymore, not to mention habitat damage.
FENCES THAT WORK:
 |
 |
This is what most of our southern border looks like: there is no government-built fence at all. There is often just whatever is left over from some forgotten cattle fence, built privately to keep U.S. cattle from wandering freely into Mexico. For hundreds of miles there is not even a broken cattle fence, there is nothing at all.
For comparison, below the broken cattle fence photo is a sample of an inexpensive but highly effective double border fence system, with a plowed strip to reveal footprints. This type of system is very cheap and can be built with great speed.
Here is what some of San Diego County has: a wall made of rusty Viet Nam-era runway mats. The corrugations are even horizontal, (to make climbing easier?) The illegals in this photo were spotted by unexpected civilian volunteers, and jumped back over the border.
Here is what the border looks like where the runway mat wall exists. Mexico begins on the other side of the ineffective rusty wall, which actually helps the smugglers, by hiding their movements until the occasional USBP vehicle has driven out of sight.
This is how "the game" is played. Smugglers hide on the other side of the wall with their dope and/or their illegals, out of sight of the USBP. They wait for the highly visible white BP vehicle to drive over the distant hills. Lookouts with cell phones and walkie-talkies report on the current locations of the BP units. They know with certainty that "the coast is clear" for an hour or two, and the smugglers and illegals hop the fence and run into the scrub only 50 yards away. From there, they are out of sight, and they walk 1-2 miles to holding houses. Then they wait for nightfall, and are picked up and driven in vans to LA or San Diego.
Lastly, below is the Duncan Hunter 15' fence, which is already being built along a few "showplace" miles of San Diego, mainly near the ports of entry, where panderng politicians can conveniently show it off to gullible reporters. The House has approved building 700 miles of it, which would be a great start. As you can see, the rusty runway wall is seen at the left side, Mexico begins on the other side. In areas with the 15 foot fence, dope smugglers and illegals will have to cross the open sand ("the government road" as it is called) before starting to try to get over the 15 foot fence. It's extremely tough, and resists cutting. Attacking the fence would have to be done right out in the open, in full view of cameras. This type of fence, on the U.S. side of the government road, will give the USBP a barrier to patrol, instead of forcing them to chase illegals around 100,000 square miles of wide-open frontier land, which is a fool's errand.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Ping.
I'm just waiting for the same neocons who proposed the UAE operate our port terminals, to now propose the ChiCom Army come in and patrol our border. Afterall, by their rationale, the only way to maintain peace is to encourage interdependence. Besides, since we support Taiwan, we only owe the ChiComs an opportunity to control our southern border. /sarcasm
Ha! And you know it would 'ruin their economy' (and ours, I'm certain) if we didn't, right? /whine
I've written to them about this several times, and I never get an answer.
I believe the majority of illegal immigration would stop if the freebies from our government stopped, and if it was a real crime to hire illegals (with prosecution).
There has to be a way, but there isn't the will to do it from our cowardly politicians.
"Although most birds and bats could bypass the fence, creatures varying from tortoises to coyotes to endangered jaguars could not...."
Won't stop two legged coyotes.
Wonder why the eco freaks aren't screaming about this?
Shoot, man, that's why it's there! The illegals were driving through and tearing up pristine desert lands, and the eco-nuts quietly pushed to have the National Monuments and Parks protected by these so-called Normandy Barriers.
They're made with steel railroad rails welded to steel rails buried 10-15 feet deep so that they can't be removed.
The Environmental Impact Study was completed back in '03, and they've been putting the barricade in - quietly - ever since. The Ohio NG used CH-47 Chinook helicopters to help emplace parts of the barricade in the Coronado National Monument where the terrain was too rough for normal construction crews to make it in.
Won't even slow them down. According to what I've heard and read, that wasn't the intended purpose of these barriers.
The good news is that the Kyl fence is just that - a fence like that being built in Duncan Hunter's district in California that does stop the foot traffic.
In the meanwhile, some 70% of illegal drugs entering the United States originates from South and Central America, grossing somewhere near $25-30 billion a year. The impact to the illegal drug traffiking - if only 50% of that 70% were reduced - would equate to as much as $10 billion a year, to which $2.2 billion seems a decently wise investment.
Unfortunately, that's the one thing the FedGov isn't too keen in doing - making wise investments.
""Hunter's office estimates the fence would cost $2.2 billion, or $3.15 million per mile.""
Build it now, illegals cost the California taxpayers over 10 billion a year, 3.5 billion is a real bargain!
Prosecute anyone hiring an illegal and we will have to have guarded gates in the fence to let the returning illegals through to go back to wherever they came from.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.