Posted on 10/18/2011 12:04:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Minnesota Congresswomen and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has become the latest politician to call for an impenetrable fence along the entire length of the border with Mexico. "President Obama has failed the American people by failing to secure the southern border," said Bachmann. "I will secure that border and that will be Job One."
Statements like that may get some attention, but they are not practical. Don't take our word for it; take Rick Perry's.
The Texas governor has been called a lot of things, but he's hardly a mushy liberal. Yet even this tough Texan sneers at calls for a Berlin Wall-style border fence spanning hundreds of miles from Brownsville to El Paso.
Two reasons: We can't afford it, and we don't need it.
The cost of a barrier like that would be staggering, certainly in the billions. Bachmann and others are silent about how they would pay for it.
Moreover, it is unnecessary. The Texas-Mexico border includes many miles of desert that are either lightly populated or devoid of any human presence. Illegal immigrants don't cross there. They make their moves along urban corridors.
Perry knows this because he is the governor of Texas. He knows the issue is more nuanced - like his support for in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.
Secure the border? Absolutely - but in an intelligent way that puts our resources where they will have the most impact.
Voters should be wary of sound bites from candidates that fire up special-interest groups but lack logic. The next president will need real ideas, not gimmicks, to solve the challenges facing this nation.
Help Texas watch the border:
http://www.texasborderwatch.com/
24 live night vision cameras.
Easy to register, easy instructions on what to watch for and report .
“And washing up on the Atlantic beaches.”
:^D
It’s a terrible analogy. The Mexicans are INVADERS, not persecuted refugees. And we’re not keeping our own citizens IN with a wall. We have a right to secure our borders from external forces.
Where would you build the fence? On the Mexican side?
(good luck with THAT)
On the Texas side?
Most Texas ranchers are against the fence. It would take away their water rights for their cattle.
In the middle of the river?
Where?
What happens to U.S. land on the south side of the wall? Does it become a de facto part of Mexico?
The University of Texas, Brownsville, discovered recently that plans called for part of its campus to be on the south side of the fence.
Would students need a passport to get to some of their classes?
Officially, the project would cost at least $2.1 billion. But building in remote areas, not to mention legal fights with landowners who don’t want to sell, could send the price soaring.
It did a wonderful job in its time.
Why don’t we just build the fence around Texas. He considers Texas and Mexico “one region.” So be it. Enjoy.
Heck ya, and to this day, if any foreign military force wishes to execute a ground campaign, that wall would cause some heartburn.
Duncan Hunter’s fence greatly reduced drug smuggling in his district.
We need it all: fencing, technology and border patrol.
Vote for Aunt Clara! She's saner than Ron Paul!
"Be sure to determine the number of children accompanying each invading group so that budgeting and future enrollment estimates can be forwarded to the Texas Department of Higher Education."
$2.1 Billion is peanuts compared to the $143 Billion they cost taxpayers every year.
In my opinion, the difference has to do with how serious someone views the illegals problem.
For people who look at the loss of California and see Texas 10 years from now, it looks like Perry is national suicide.
There is a lot to like about Rick Perry, but if there is one issue on which his position is likely to destroy our long constitutional tradition of limited government and individual freedom and replace it with socialism, then that one issue trumps all the others.
Imagine a sickly patient on the verge of death [Uncle Sam] interviewing prospective doctors.
Into to the room comes Dr. Perry.
Dr. Perry with a big smile says, “I’ve got just the program to get you back to health. I’m going to give you a regimen of antibiotics [cutting government spending and returning powers to the states] and a super-nutritious plan of food and vitamins [opening up domestic energy resources, cutting taxes and government regulation and reforming entitlements].
The patient now sits up and listens hopefully as Dr. Perry continues:
“And then I’m going to cut off your head [legalizing tens of millions of illegals]. Oh wait, I’m not going to call it that [won’t call it amnesty], so let’s just call it separating your head from your body.”
At that point, Uncle Sam is saying to himself in horror, it doesn’t matter that he has this great medicine and nutrition plan, he is going to kill me!
That is why the question of the illegals is not just some minor detail in a big campaign platform.
It has to do with whether limited government and individual freedom will even be viable in the future in America.
Two points:
1. Ten times your estimate is still dirt cheap considering the benefits to the nation.
2. Eminent domain. It's what's for breakfast.
Many states have found this is a very unreliable set of information -- where legal people are fired and MANY who are illegal are not found on the list. It places a burden on business -- especially costly to small business. And as usual, it is others who have to pay for and clean up the mess left by the Federal govt. just leaving the states left hanging out to dry.
Gov. Perry supports AZ right to make decisions on the border -- but nothing is going to come of these laws because the activist courts are going to continue to block them. We need someone who understands this in the WH and that is Rick Perry.
If Perry was against illegal immigration he would be pushing for a law like the Alabama law in Texas.
That law has already been challenge and a major part about checking students' legal status blocked.
If Perry was against illegal immigration sanctuary cities would have been ended in Texas a long time ago.
Gov. Perry made this a priority issue in the last legislative session --- the legislature dropped the ball on this - they left without sending Perry a bill to sign and protected their own political rear-ends.
If Perry was against illegal immigration he would not be in favor of giving a tuition break to illegals who are not even allowed to work in the country.
Gov. Perry is against illegal immigration and he wants the border sealed. The Federal government refuses to do that. Texas spends a lot of money trying to do it -- but once those students are here for more than 3 years, graduated and have applied for citizenship and will PAY full in-state tuition -- it makes the most sense to Texas to do that. They represent a miniscule number of the 1,700,000 college students in Texas and the vast majority of them attend community colleges.
And Perry does indeed want amnesty, at least in the sense of the ordinary meaning of the word, which is to say letting people get away with their violation of the law: “That’s why I support a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contributions without providing them citizenship status.”
Documenting workers is not amnesty.
Stop with that Texas stuff. We didn’t exactly have a choice here. Him, Kay Bailey or the Democrat. Then we sent up a bunch of Republicans, and they saw fit to put a liberal Republican as the Speaker and ignored all of the anti-illegal legislation pushed by the Tea Party this year. The voters wanted to follow the lead of Arizona. It’s like everywhere else with the Republican party, though: people either say, “Well, my guy’s good, unlike the rest,” or they simply have no choice and have to send the crud back or not vote at all. Believe me, we are not down here celebrating the illegals. It’s my main issue and I am really growing to despise these damned illegals and the people who talk tough when they want our vote while winking at the illegals behind our backs.
I say we take ten miles of land the length of the border, compensate the owners (if we’re talking the American side) and dig it low enough that the Gulf rushes in, giving us a water border between us and Mexico. I know it’s an impossibility, but I can dream.
Giving them a 'path to citizenship' is.
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.