I have never said a fence by itself would solve the border issues. I have always said it will be a complicated process, requiring many steps. If step one is not a fence, then the other steps are meaningless.
You can't deport them faster than they can illegally enter, without a barrier. What we have now is a revolving door. Illegals return within hours or days of being deported, and the Border Patrol itself admits to only catching about 1/3 of the estimated 3 million illegal crossers each year.
Here is an interesting link to an article that came out about a year ago in USA Today. It will help you get some perspective on the illegal problem we really have on this border. I live very near the area discussed in the article.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-22-border-patrol_x.htm
Sorry, but you absolutely CAN deport them faster than they can illegally enter--but not with current laws/regs. Which is why those laws and regs need to be vastly strengthened. EVERY law enforcement officer, local, state, and federal should be qualified to arrest any illegal immigrant he or she identifies, and such a requirement needs to be mandated for every city and state with a failure to comply resulting in all loss of federal funding for any and all programs. The action of a mayor telling his cops that they can't arrest illegals should get that mayor sent to jail on federal criminal charges.