If they could build a 25 ft high wall, 4500 miles long 2000 years ago, then we sure as heck could do it today. I've watched specials on the building of the Alaska Pipeline, a border wall would be a piece of cake compared to that project.
Posted on 12/28/2004 8:28:00 PM PST by JackelopeBreeder
DOUGLAS - The U.S. Border Patrol wants to construct up to 18 miles of new secondary fencing, with most of it being placed about 60 feet north of the existing border wall here and at Naco.
The secondary fencing is included in a wish list of improvements and enhancements the Border Patrol is proposing in the Revised Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for its Tucson and Yuma sectors.
The report, initially released in October, is now under review.
The additional fencing is just "another enforcement tool that will allow the Border Patrol to patrol both sides of the fence. It will in effect decrease, if not stop, illegal crossing in the areas where it is used. And it will require less manpower to patrol those areas, said Andrea Zortman, a spokeswoman for the agency in Tucson.
The secondary wall also will increase deterrence in the urban areas of Naco and Douglas by allowing agents to patrol the corridor formed between the existing fencing and a second 12-foot fence, increasing the certainty of capturing illegal crossers, she said.
Exactly how much secondary fencing will be used, where it will be located and what type of construction materials will be used are not detailed in the draft of the environmental impact statement.
The request for secondary fencing initially was made in 2001, Zortman said, but things have changed since then. For example, additional manpower, miles of primary fencing and new surveillance equipment all have been installed in the area and have been effective in curbing illegal entries in the urban areas. And for the moment, the Border Patrol's priority is to install still more primary fencing, more lighting, sensors and cameras.
"It's still out there, it's still being studied," Zortman said of the secondary wall plan, "but it's definitely not on the front burner."
For residents living along the border in Douglas and Agua Prieta, Mexico, the debate over the need for additional border fencing is academic. Many said they favor anything that improves security in their neighborhood, whether it's more agents, additional lighting or a secondary border fence.
Things have improved along Agua Prieta's Calle Internacional in the eight years since the Border Patrol replaced the porous chain-link fence with a 12-foot barrier of steel poles, said Enriqueta Martinez, 69, who has lived a stone's throw away from the border for more than 20 years.
The constant traffic of migrants and smugglers has slowed. But at night, Martinez says, she still has to cope with people climbing over the fencing around her yard and up onto her roof where they hide behind the cooler to act as lookouts for the smugglers who continue to work her neighborhood.
"The other day I heard something and came out to see what was happening. I saw a man up on the roof. He told me, 'Don't be scared,' but how can you not be scared, when people are climbing onto your house?" she asked.
Down the street, Maria Elena Olivares, 41, a 25-year resident of Calle Internacional says the existing 12-foot barrier has had little impact on the flow of people through the neighborhood.
"It's the same, people still keep jumping over," she said. "That fence hasn't held back anything. I've watched people cut holes in it and even pull it down in sections.
"I don't think more fencing will work any better, it's just another fence to jump."
Still, she favors any effort to hold back the illegal activity that sometimes spills over from the street into her yard.
It's the same across the border for Fausto Valenzuela and his neighbors living along International Avenue in Douglas.
Eight years ago, there were so many people crossing the border and running through his neighborhood and yard that he'd come to regard home repairs or improvements as pointless.
Valenzuela, 56, who has lived next to the border for 37 years, says he spent much of his time trying to keep up with the damage to his chain-link fence caused as people jumped onto it and then over an adobe wall into his back yard in an effort to elude the Border Patrol.
"Before they put in that fence you couldn't fix anything because they'd break it, and you couldn't leave anything out because they'd take it," said Valenzuela, referring to illegal border crossers. "Those people did a lot of damage," he added.
He supports the construction of a secondary fence in front of his home and would like to see more patrols and more lighting in the area, too.
"It's not as bad now, but people still cross here. It would be good if they could stop it," he said.
Not everyone living in the area is eager to see the additional barrier, saying it will do nothing more than push the smuggling of illegal border crossers into increasingly remote areas beyond the fence where the risk of injury or death is greater, says longtime Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, who is among critics of the plan.
"It's ridiculous to spend more money on a second fence," he said. "The first one didn't work and now they want to put up a secondary fence like they use around prisons. It's not going to solve anything, it's just more eyewash and more money from the taxpayer."
Borane says he isn't surprised that the Douglas residents living nearest the border support the fence and additional enforcement because they have been most affected.
The fence addresses the symptoms and not the cause of the problem, he said.
"They say, 'It keeps traffic out of my yard or my neighborhood,' but then it's another person's back yard," Borane said. "And in the case of Douglas, that means farther out into the countryside."
A lot of local residents have adopted a very similar style of fencing close to their houses. Along with flood lights and packs of large dogs. Gives the place a nice ambience of something like Stalag 17.
>"Why don't they build border fences the way they build prison fences... with lots of razor wire..."<
Nah...make it like the Great Wall of China with a walkway on the top. (see my #19 post)
That way the open borders crowd could walk along the top, and wave hello to their friends! ;^D
........or contract it out to the Israelis.
LOL!
What are ya doing hurtin' little COEXERJ145's liberal sensiblities like that? Now he's going to have to ping his DU.COM pals; jveritas, bayourod and cultural jihad for emotional support!
;^D
I have been preaching this same thing for months. Now this is a double walls running parallel to each other about 100 yards apart with a minefield and moyion detectors between the walls and watch towers if needed. Mines can be energized or turned off electronically.
The walls are reinforced Concrete walls 8 - 10 feet high with Fencing mounted on top of it another 8 or 16 geet high. The ground in front of the fencing and the Fencing itslef has RAZOR wire facing out all the way up the front and on top.
Access through the fence is gaind via a check point. All Truck traffic is delivered to a warehouse area. The trucks are unloaded and shipments are inspected. Refrigeration is also available for perishable foods. Trucks and Drivers are impounded until inspection of shipment is completed. Only US Trucks deliver to the interior of the country.
I like it, I wish we had one on our border. I think the Isrealis are having classes on Wall 101 , starting in the spring semester. Maybe we should send the VP to check it out>??
jeez, looks like the Israelis even built a moat! What's that for burning oil? ;^D
On a serious note, the security wall in Israel has cut the homicide bombing attacks way down.
I'd bet our illegal problem would drop down to almost nothing, if we spent the money on a wall, instead of chasing them through the desert.
But no, we can't have that!
Whatever it takes!!
Now THAT is a fence!
That's what I call Border Control!! We should send a picture to George!!
Just hink about all of the Drugs and other Crap that would be slowed down.
In the U.S. its called jogging. In mexico, its called 'preparing'.
Yea and he can contract Haliburton to build it !
Yes it has.
I noticed the moat, too. Flaming oil ! LOL !
I've seen the new continuous paving machines. Why can't we develop a continuous wall machine. Say about 15' high. It won't keep them out but it will be more difficult.
Don't get me wrong, I still booby-trap the Illegal Alien Trails. New Years Eve party poppers, those aerosol horns people take to football games, giant fake spider webs made out of dental floss and Silly String and sprayed down with the magic liquid inside chem-lights.
How would you react at 3 a.m. if you you were walking into a drainage tunnel and got blasted by the sound of the Balrog from Lord of the Rings or a T Rex from Jurassic Park? Would your underware survive unblemished?
Only if it is topped with barbed wire--- and land mines between the two fences.
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