Posted on 04/15/2008 9:57:08 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
COLUMBUS, N.M. - Illegal immigrants armed with torches, hacksaws, ladders and even bungee cords are making it around a section of the border fence hailed as the most efficient way to stop them.
In the 10 months since the section was put up, a tunnel is the only method federal agents haven't seen - "yet," added Victor Guzman, the supervisory Border Patrol agent responsible for the stretch of 15-foot, concrete-filled steel poles, planted close together and three feet into the ground.
Agents responsible for guarding that stretch of border almost immediately started seeing cuts in the fence.
The towering posts, gray and rust-color, are marked with bright-orange spray paint in areas believed to have been breached, Guzman said.
Guzman, who has worked in the area for nearly a decade, said agents have found holes cut with acetylene torches, hacksaws and even high-powered plasma torches, which use inert gas or condensed air to quickly cut through steel and other dense metals.
"We see it once or twice a week," Guzman said of the holes along the 1 1/2-mile stretch of fencing about 80 miles west of El Paso.
Officials monitoring cameras in the area have seen at least one group using a massive ladder to scale the south side of the fence.
Members of the group tried to drop into the U.S. with bungee cords before agents caught them.
But it's not just illegal immigrants worrying the Border Patrol.
The fence itself is starting to settle into the ground, and gaps between the posts are widening.
In one spot, an average-size woman could wedge herself through one of the gaps.
Border Patrol spokesman Joe Romero said the Columbus fencing, erected in June, was ordered before the congressional mandate to build 670 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing across the border with Mexico by the end of the year.
But its goal is the same: to add a layer of security in an otherwise open patch of desert.
Other sections of fencing along the border are being built with panels of woven steel instead of towering posts.
Detractors have long argued that the fence will do little to stop determined illegal immigrants and smugglers hoping to enter the United States.
Barry Morrissey, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Washington, did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press on Friday.
Romero said the breaches are no surprise.
"What we're talking about is our fences are designed to deter people, discourage them from coming in," Romero said. "Combined with the rest of the infrastructure, it's supposed to buy us more time to make an arrest.
"Even an extra five seconds helps. The goal is, at the very least, it buys us extra time."
Repairing fences is old hat for agents in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector, which includes the two westernmost Texas counties and all of New Mexico.
In the city of El Paso, a team is assigned to patrol a stretch of more than a dozen miles of fencing, looking for and welding holes.
The agents assigned to the team often repair the same sections of fencing daily.
Agents in Arizona and California, where fencing has also been in place for more than a decade, have in the past done the same thing.
In some of those areas contractors now help with the daily fixes.
But I thought the illegal aliens were all harmless farmers...
PING
If we could just start picking them off (just the ones trying to damage the fence) word would get around and this would really cut down on the attempts. Take the bodies and hang them on pikes on the top of the fence as a warning to anyone else thinking about doing the same thing.
Borders, walls, and fences are only as good as the leaders and personnel willing to defend them.
Like rats chewing a hole into your home.
Welcome to Mousetrap-ville.
They’re just cutting the fences that Chertoff and co. won’t build ...
And the same is true for constitutions.
I would be all for that. I have previously proposed a bounty on illegal foreign invaders. Maybe $1000/head. Turn loose the free enterprise system. Once word gets out, problem solved.
Israeli fence works because you will get shot at for trying to break through the fence. Since we are too cowardly to shoot these criminals we do have a problem
Mexican are laughing at us and you can thank Jorge Bush and the other hacks in DC. They are laughing too
The Israeli fence is better because you can see through it. You see the criminals trying to compromise your fence and start firing at them. Make a double layer fence. Include barb wire pyramids and patrol road and it's lot cheaper than what we are doing
When a fence is solid metal you can see the Mexicans cutting through it until they knock out the piece
Install a couple of non-polluting, ecologically friendly wind turbines and ELECTRIFY the fence.
Those who make it through should be able to get jobs as welders with this on their resume.
They even have their own tools.
Yeah, they "jest come here for a better life---to take jobs Americans won't do---flipping hamburgers and picking lettuce."
The payoff in US govt benefits must be even greater than we think it is (/sarc)---considering the extreme ways they employ to get in here.
Multiple identities and numerous SS nos can get them on several US gravy trains simultaneously.......,multiple EITC refunds, welfare checks, food stamps (which they sell), UI and disability checks. Plus several ADD checks for each kid using different names.
Course the big payoff is income from drug-running for Columbian drug lords.
Electrify the fence!!! Oh wait. I forgot. We can’t harm those who have no respect for our laws, refuse to assimilate to our culture or seek to destroy the U.S. We must be politically correct!!!
bttt
But, but, Rush and Sean told us mitt romney was the only conservative in the race.
Why just the ones trying to damage the fence?
How expensive is .308?
The only way to stop them (illegal entries) is to put true American patriots in government. Too bad, people. We missed our chances - in fact we’ve been missing our chances the last five general elections, and a number of them before that, back to Woodrow Wilson.
Because they ARE the ones damaging the fence.
Those two geniuses are mostly good at lining their own pockets.
Good construction. And it looks quite more doable than metal/concrete wall.
Where’s the “brown noise” generator?
Ping!
Older story, new source...
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