Well, I do, in a sort of back-handed way. No fence or wall, left unguarded, is going to accomplish anything by its existance alone. It'll have to be backed up, whether by the Border Patrol or a military force dedicated to the task, like Germany's Bundesgrenzeschutze, technically a police organization with arrest powers, but armed and equipped in military fashion, to include armoured vehicles.
Among our southern border there are 24 U.S. counties contiguous with Mexican territory, spread along four states. I'd suggest that the posting of a battalion of troops [circa 750 personnel] in each county, with each state providing a brigade headquarters and support elements, would be a good initial start; from there it can be determined where more troops are needed, or less. Similarly, major Army posts are available in Texas [Ft Hood, Ft Bliss, Ft Sam Houston] and Arizona [Fort Huachuca and the Yuma Proving Ground] and Marine installations in California, [MCAS Miramar/and MCRD San Diego, Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms and the Marine Coirps Logistics Base at Barstow] so those services might be better suited to operations in those states.
The required force would thereby be around 17,700 troops, about divisional strength, in normal practice run by a Major [2 stars] General. With or without a fence/wall, such a force would require only a Presidential Finding that the incursions from Mexico represent a clear and present danger to the stability and authority of the United States; US troops have been so tasked before.
ICE/Homeland Security/Customs/Immigration personnel thereby freed up could then be set to the task of internal security efforts in cleaning house of the 20-million illegal invaders now present.
In short: we need troops along our southern border as much or more than we need a fence, and we REALLY need a President capable of taking that kind of leadership action.
In the presence the unprecedented threat to our very existence that a continued open border represents, the small-print legalisms that would be invoked by vocal and powerful opponents to such a plan would have to be unceremoniously squelched (a highly uncharacteristic state of affairs in America 2007, where taking the bull by the horns has become a lost art). Nitpicking political Pharisees, incorrectly screaming about violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, would be rampant.
Yet, as Tom Tancredo has said repeatedly, we have the personnel and the resources to get this done in a relative heartbeat. All it will take is the will. And, to be honest, I dont believe our leadership has it, and I have serious doubts about the citizenry as well.
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed