Debate over massive fence plan is heating up in South Texas

Star-Telegram ^ | 7-8-07 | JAY ROOT

[Seruzawa]

"I think it's the stupidest idea I've ever heard of," said Brian O'Brien, a wealthy Houston oilman who has an 18,000-acre ranch, seven miles of it along the Rio Grande, near Eagle Pass. "If the river doesn't keep them out, why do you think a wall will?"

Translation: I've gotten very rich on the backs of illegals and I'm gonna keep sneaking them in.

[Cicero]

If they build it, I suspect it will be a major bureaucratic boondoggle. In fact, I’m wondering if they aren’t purposely designing something that is so awkward and unworkable that they don’t have to build it.

There’s no such thing as a wall that nobody can get through, over or under, unless it is guarded. The also need personnel to guard it, and they need to enforce the laws on welfare and employment and anchor babies and so forth, so illegals won’t be so desperate to come here.

[wastedyears]

Mexico is unfriendly to us, we just want to return the favor.

[laotzu]

The Texas Rangers were originally formed to enforce the Texas-Mexico border.....and they enforced the hell out of it.

And then, we joined the United States.

[BJungNan]

"If the wall would help I wouldn't mind. But it won't help. It'll be a big expense, a big problem, ugly as hell and unfriendly to Mexico," said Moody, 84, born in Galveston and heir to one of the largest and oldest fortunes in Texas
...and whose fortune he owes to the broken backs of the humans his family exploited that are in the U.S. working illegally and so cannot force him to pay an them an honest wage, decent wage.

Sometimes you wish you had someone phone number so you could call them and tell them what a smuck they are. And what propoganda from the reporter. Where was the barf alert tag on this one?

[NurdlyPeon]

Here we go with the predicable barrage of “it can’t be done” articles. Expect more of them. This is a predicable result of 1)the defeat of the shamnesty bill, and 2)the very real prospect of a Fred “it’s a national security issue” Thompson presidency. Put them in the same “gee what a surprise” category as the the attacks on his “trophy wife”.

[Ditter]

A wall is only going to work if there are machine guns on top of it and the will to use them. IMHO.

[stm]

Forget the fence, lay a 300m deep minefield with toe poppers and claymores along the entire Mexican border. Problem solved.

You pays your pesos, you takes your chances Pedro, roll the bones.

[Man50D]

Now is not the time to let up. We need to pressure our politicians to enforce the existing immigration laws including deporting illegal aliens, building the fence and prosecuting businesses who do business with illegal aliens. The link below is a ping list to pay attention for other questionable legislation being considered in Congress.

Keeping Track Of The Congress Critters

[claudiustg]

If the rich and powerful wanted the fence, we couldn’t stop them from building it. As it is, it’s just something they dangle in front of us to prevent a voter’s revolt.

[vetsvette]

“For fence proponents, Operation Gatekeeper is proof that fences work. For critics, it’s proof they don’t.”

The typical leftist retort to anything that they don’t want to do is that it’s not a 100% solution, so we shouldn’t pursue it. The fence isn’t 100%, so it’s not worth doing; ANWR doesn’t solve the entire oil crisis, so we shouldn’t drill there; abstinence schooling isn’t 100%, so we shouldn’t do that; some people have bad parents, so we shouldn’t require parental notification before abortions on minors; and on and on.

Of course, for liberal causes, the most minor progress is reason enough to pursue it: if just ONE life is saved it’s worth inconveniencing or increasing mortal risk to the rest of the entire world; if we can increase the scholastic of just ONE child, we should double or triple the tax rate; a SINGLE instance of racial prejudice is reason enough to justify national affirmative action programs; and on and on.

It gets pretty tiresome after a time.

[whipitgood]

Simple solution: If the landowners don’t want the wall/fence to protect their land, just build the fence around it. They will end up on the Mexico side, but so what? It will still protect the rest of us from the illegal insanity.

[wolfcreek]

They need to drag Mr. O’Brian and Mr. Moody off to jail until they change their tune. Both are major contributors to the overall problem.

[WesternPacific]

Being 84 years old I am sure the world he remembers is not the same world we have today. I can remember a time when illegals might break into a hunting cabin and eat some food, but they would not trash the place and would usually wash their dishes when finished. I can also remember when this changed.

[vetsvette]

“A wall is only going to work if there are machine guns on top of it and the will to use them. IMHO.”

I’ve visited Korea many times over the past 50 years and suspect that you could count the North Koreans that have escaped over the demilitarized zone one one hand.

Like most things that “can’t be done,” it’s really a case of “don’t want to do it.”

[unixfox]

What nobody can say with any certainty is whether fences will actually help secure the border.

There is a fence around the White House and we know for certainty that it secures THAT border.

[NordP]

Give a wall—just like a real war—(taking the gloves off) a CHANCE.

[KDD]

[Saundra Duffy]

It’s not that hard but you have to want to and obviously the people in charge don’t really want to.

This is so discouraging.