Posted on 04/07/2006 4:49:59 AM PDT by conservativecorner
As Congress looks to revamp immigration policy, some lawmakers are pushing to extend fencing along the U.S. border with Mexico. Proposals range from beefing up existing fences in Arizona to constructing new fences that would span 700 miles. Those advocating expanded fencing already have a model they can look to: a fence the federal government built more than a decade ago along a 14-mile-stretch in San Diego, Calif., that borders Tijuana, Mexico.
Before the fence was built, all that separated that stretch of Mexico from California was a single strand of cable that demarcated the international border.
Back then, Border Patrol agent Jim Henry says he was overwhelmed by the stream of immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally just in that sector.
"It was an area that was out of control," Henry says. "There were over 100,000 aliens crossing through this area a year."
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Of course, because it's only 14 miles of fence, the illegal aliens go AROUND the fence.
Incidentally, that 14-mile section is still heavily patrolled as well--just as if the fence wasn't there.
Meanwhile, out here in East San Diego County, there's no fence, next to no border patrol, and a grandstanding loudmouth congresscritter who prefers talking to doing.
Yep, that'll stop them. It's not as if they can't walk down to the next cactus to come across.
Its a little hard for me to understand. As I ride around the Washingtn beltway I see these fences built to keep the beltway noise from the local neighborhoods They are concrete 25 to 30 feet high and run for miles. Are they expensive? Probably.
But my point is if we can build a concrete fence 30 feet high 60 miles long around both sides of a major highway to keep noise from the beltway out of communities, why is it such an environmental disaster to build a fence to keep possible terrorists out of America.
Now I realise that not all immigrants who come over the border are terrorists, But they are ILLEGAL. If they ant to come into this country they are required by law to come in t border checkpoints. Giving every one who has already come over a general amnesty and American citizenship just encourages more to come. Its plain stupid. Yes folks those people up there making our laws are Friggin Stupid, and WE are friggin stupid for allowing it. We should be marching en-masse on the Capitol. Problem is we dont have Communist agitators to lead us and supply us with money like the regular protest groups do.
Great points BUMP!!
If you extended the fence from sea to shining sea, and didn't add a bunch of patrols along its entire length, you'd probably see illegal immigration drop 25%. (Among other things, an unpatrolled fence invites people to cut holes in it.)
75% of a calamity is still a calamity.
There is no cheap, easy solution to illegal immigration, aside from:
1. Hiring a bunch of illegals to build a fence from sea to shining sea. (Sorry, you can't do a "cheap" fence at union scale rates.)
2. Drafting every able-bodied young American male for two years to patrol said fence. Pay 'em at the going rate for a US Army private.
3. Drafting every American woman of child-bearing age to have the next generation of border guards.
Just think: we'll need to make unauthorized infertility a court-martial offense.
Because building 30-foot-high concrete walls requires something that is a wee bit scarce in the Southwestern U.S.
Care to guess what that scarce something is?
It's 14 miles of fence, and it's far more patrolled than non-fenced areas. Of course apprehensions will go down. The only way they wouldn't go down is if the illegal aliens were dumber than the border patrol--and I doubt such a feat to be possible.
So, all we need to do is extend that fence 2,086 more miles and supply the manpower to do patrols at that same level of intensity along the remaining 2,086 miles of border. No problem, right?
the border patrol needed to patrol it would be very easy with 30-40 thousand patrol agents we could do it
OK, with 30-40,000 agents, that's 6-8,000 agents on post in any one shift, which translates to 3-4 agents per mile...
What, the illegals are going to line up, take a number, and wait for the agent in their sector to call them before they attempt to cross?
Good fences make good neighbors.
Build the fence in the House bill. It is the closest thing to a silver bullet we have.
Interesting turn of phrase: describing the fence as a "silver bullet."
What happens to silver if you don't do continuous maintenance on it?
Not a problem---just cast the concrete panels where the water is, and bring'em in by rail and truck.
The proposed 700 miles of barrier would cover nearly 40% of the entire border. It would require them to go literally hundreds of miles out of their way through some of the most forbidding terrain in North America. The rest would be monitored by sensors to track movement and initiate a response.
It's not a full 1,700 mile barrier, but it will reduce illegal border crossings a great deal.
Your thoughts, MI?
Certainly not limestone. There are massive formations located within reasonable proximity to the border. Not aggregate, either. The Rio Grande is plum full of it.
The Maginot Line didn't exactly keep out the invading hordes, either.
Because rich people live on the other side of the noise barrier. And they need their cheap labor to remain rich. BTW, ask the ecofreaks about their fence protesting choices. It's probably as non-senseical as everything else they do. (Sorta sarcasm)
There is a little difference between the German Army and group of people hiking through the desert with just what they can carry.
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