Posted on 11/03/2005 4:54:56 AM PST by InvisibleChurch
Lawmaker Wants Fence On 2,000-Mile U.S.-Mexico Border Fence Would Cost Billions Of Dollars
POSTED: 6:34 am EST November 3, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A House Republican wants to build a fence along the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, a plan that could cost billions of dollars and one that critics say would do little to stop illegal immigration.
California Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, plans to introduce legislation that would create a two-layer reinforced fence with lighting and sensors from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, a 100-yard border zone to the north of the barriers and 25 new ports of entry.
Currently, most of the westernmost 14-mile stretch of the border is lined with parallel fencing. There is secure fencing at other vulnerable points, but long stretches of the border are protected only by patchy barbed wire or nothing at all.
"Illegal aliens continue to funnel directly into many of our local communities and adversely impact our way of life by overwhelming our schools, inundating our health care system and, most concerning, threatening our safety," said Hunter, who was working on the bill with Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va.
He said building a fence and enforcing immigration laws could reverse the trends.
A conservative group called Let Freedom Ring that is promoting a border fence estimates it would cost about $8 billion.
Republican Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado recently announced his support for the project, but Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has said he does not think a fence would stop illegal immigration.
Groups including National Council of La Raza, the largest U.S.-based Hispanic advocacy group, oppose a fence.
"It doesn't really deal with why people are migrating or why our economy is so dependent on their labor," said Cecilia Munoz, the group's vice president of policy. "The resourcefulness of people on both sides of the border is likely to be greater than a fence."
Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, planned to join Hunter at his news conference Thursday to support the idea.
"The U.S. and Mexico, if they're going to remain friends they're going to need good fences," Stein said.
Hunter's bill contains other immigration reforms including authorizing 10,000 new Border Patrol officers, empowering local police to enforce immigration laws and increasing penalties for hiring illegal immigrants.
Hunter is a leading opponent of illegal immigration who earlier this year pushed the Bush administration to commit to fortifying the westernmost 3½ miles of the border, over the objections of environmentalists, the California Coastal Commission and the local Democratic congressman.
What about those microwave weapons they've been testing for crowd dispersal? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6182817
Bounty on those already in the country - another winner! Ya' have to be very careful about this one though. The point is to catch. detain and remove them, not to turn the country into Dodge City. The pro-illegal immigration faction would beat us over the head with that one.
Why are Hispanic Advocacy Groups foaming-at-the-mouth opposed to this, at the same time claiming it will have NO EFFECT? We spend $200 million on an Alaska bridge to nowhere, $300 billion to rebuild the City Under the Sea, and $7 billion to prepare for Bird Flu, which won't happen. The price of this fence is reasonable. Why does Bush keep peddling this "temporary work program" which will only ENCOURAGE more people to sneak in? Bush is incompetent. I'm convinced a Democrat would do better at controlling immigration. And I'm pretty conservative.
The sad fact is many business owners benefit from the cheap labor at everyone else's expense, and they have influence.
IF illegals know there is no employer here to give them work and that when caught here they are deported that week then the flow will stop
Lets not forget the social services that are offered to illegals up to and including reduced tuition at our colleges and mortgages.
Heh-heh, it would be delightfully ironic if illegals ended up building it.
they forgot the need for landmines to supplement the fence.
The claim that a fence could not help is ridiculous. The project is not just a fence that is built then abandoned to watch what happens. The fence is a tool to affect the busy migration corridors, perhaps focusing traffic into tighter zones easier to manage by the Border Patrol.
The biggest obsticle to this project is how insulting it is to Mexicans. This needs to be politically-correctified by emphasizing how it will raise the wages of Mexicans already in the US, by calling it one of these:
Fence of Empowerment
Enfranchisement Monument
Impenetrable Wall of Enfranchisement
Freedom Wall
US/Mexico Adhesive Zone
We need to gain control of our borders, that's a given. But what do we do when the rest of the hemisphere falls apart because they can't govern themselves without widespread drugs/graft/corruption, and thievery? Millions of Mexicans, mainly the poor, have already arrived, (a quarter of the population, in fact), and now a poll taken in Mexico reveals that half of those remaining in Mexico would head north in a wink. This is the middle class. People all over this hemisphere, outside the US and Canada, are sick and tired of living conditions. Two thousand Costa Ricans announced this a few years back...they were also sick of hurricanes. They were planning to head north, walking, and once they got here, they weren't leaving. Guess what. They arrived and they won't leave.
So what does the US do when envy, anti-Americanism takes home in a big way...we have our big strong wall protecting prosperity, liberty, all the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution, and someone, say, Chavez, gets nukes and decides to blow up DC or L.A., sending it in through a container or whatever? We will continue to be the dartboard for every other country in trouble economically and socially. I just mention this as well, common sense. What do we do? Bush and the CFR (One Happy Hemisphere), proposed globalization to prevent all this, and so far it's failed. Plus we have Islamofascism to deal with. A wall won't solve everything, but we need to control our borders and should start from that premise no matter what.
I think I meant 'envy, anti-Americanism takes hold in a big way'.
"Good fences make good neigbors", a chain link fence yes, a tall concrete wall no.
How about the enviro-friendly "Trash catcher" as I know its windy down there...
One of the proposals I've seen that I like is that they would use the freeway sound barrier walls. I think they are typically 20ft high concrete barriers. I like your reccomendation of making them at least 15 ft below ground. A free-fire zone on our side of the fence would probably be useful too.
None of this, of course, is going to happen because Bush doesn't want to do anything about illegal immigration. He just doesn't give a damn.
That should do it!
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