A fence without troops and monitoring and patrols is nothing. Anyone could get over, under or through it.
A 1200 mile fence requires 1200 troops if you place just one every mile. Since that poor soul has to sleep and eat, you’d need at least 2, and since they can’t be on duty 365/24/7, you need 4. And since you need support for vehicles, ammo, food, etc, you need 6. And since one poor soul takes time to go from one end of his mile and back you’d need two,
Sounds like a very reinforced brigade and with a 1 to 2 year rotation you’re talking a division and.that means a billion bucks a year counting salaries, training, and operations.
And we haven’t talked about technology yet.
So, a no mans land without fence but with high tech monitoring would work as well as a fence.
And we haven’t talked yet of the impossibility of a reinforced brigade’s command and control of a 1200 mile sector.
I guess Minefields are the only answer.
When they hear a boom and see a cloud of dust, send a Helicopter to investigate.
Or, we could stop giving illegals the entitlement benefits that some Americans don’t get...take the cheeze from under the rat’s nose...IF the Feds would allow it!
I tend to like a fence as part of the deal as well. However, until we come up with a way for a temporary labor force to come and go we will continue to have a problem. The problem we have now is temporary, or seasonal, workers bring families and stay. Once they get a foothold they provide the access point for friends and relatives back home.
Until the employment issue is dealt with the magnet drawing these workers will be strong enough for them to overcome just about any barrier.