Divided views as US fence goes up

BBC News ^ | 1/31/08 | Duncan Kennedy

[mdittmar]

Of all the issues in this year's US presidential election, immigration is the one that touches the rawest of Democratic and Republican nerves.

After last year's failure by President George W Bush to get his comprehensive immigration plan past Congress, it has become fertile and divisive ground for candidates in the race.

But there is one area of immigration policy that is proceeding, despite the political stalemate: the building of the border fence between the US and Mexico.

Hundreds of kilometres are under construction along the US's southern frontier.

Estimates for the cost of the project have ranged from $2bn to $10bn (£1bn to £5bn).

Military-tested

Flying by helicopter some 100m (330ft) above the fence, it can sometimes be hard to see.

In the section along Arizona's border with Mexico I went to examine, the barrier appears like a thin black line snaking along the desert floor below.

Once you fix your eyes on the line, it becomes clear this is one area where building is racing ahead.

Roughly a mile of fencing is being erected every month here.

Areas of once-untouched desert are now disappearing under a lengthening slice of man-made fencing.

After setting down, we were able to get up close to the men and machines making the new fence.

Coast to coast, from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, some 300 miles (500km) of barrier are completed, with another 700 miles (1100km) set to go up by the end of this year.

The fence itself is an impressive, sun-blocking, engineering feat.

Agent Jose Gonzalez of the Arizona Border Patrol tells me each 4-metre-high (13ft) panel can withstand a car impact at 45mph (70 km/h).

"It's been tested using the military's armoured vehicles," he says. "We think it will withstand pretty much any migrant car or truck."

In other places, where the terrain is more suited, electronic sensors, not walls, are being installed.

But whatever "asset" is being constructed, to use Agent Gonzalez's term, it all raises the same question of whether it will work.

"It won't stop everyone," is his honest answer.

"But we believe most migrants will be deterred".

Agent Gonzalez later drives us parallel to this gigantic metallic barrier. You can see through its grey bars. Just across the ravine inside Mexico we spot a man.

When he sees the fence and us, he changes his mind about crossing and runs off.

He is not the only one deciding he needs a plan B. In some places where the wall has been completed, and where extra border patrols are in place, illegal crossings are down by as much as 60% compared with a year ago.

The days when Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Salvadorians and others could step over flimsy strips of barbed wire to begin a new life in the US are now numbered.

'Just for the US'

The fence is part of President Bush's attempts to convince Congress he is tough on immigration.

Congress gave him the go ahead for his fence but not his policy on dealing with the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants already in the US.

That unfinished business has turned into a key issue in this year's presidential race.

In some states, it is the social topic of the 2008 campaign.

We later cross into Mexico to find the fence is just as controversial, but for very different reasons. Here, it has been likened to the Berlin wall.

"What do you think of it?" I ask Marco, a Mexican, deported from America and now trying to get back into a country where hourly wages are up to 10 times those in Mexico.

"It's unfair" is his simple reply.

Marco stands dwarfed by the new border fence in front of him, but not, it seems, by the task ahead.

"Some will slip through," he says, "and I hope to be one of them."

We then climb inside one of the orange pick-up trucks used by a migrant help group, Grupo Beta.

The group, set up by the Mexican government, takes us along the fence on the Mexican side. We go past migrants straining to look up at the immense structure before them.

Enrique Enriquez from Grupo Beta tries to be diplomatic when I ask him what he thinks of the wall.

"It's fair for them, it's fair for the United States," he says.

"But maybe it's unjust this side. It's for the protection of the United States. It's just for them."

Opinion polls in the US suggest this belated attempt to physically halt unchecked immigration is popular.

Many millions of figurative horses may have bolted, but this barn door is now being very firmly shut.

Less clear is what to do with those migrants who have already made it through illegally. The outcome of this year's election may help decide that.

For now, the US is a country that is putting in place a border, but not yet a policy.

[Moonman62]

Flying by helicopter some 100m (330ft) above the fence, it can sometimes be hard to see.

It's almost invisible from close up.

Areas of once-untouched desert are now disappearing under a lengthening slice of man-made fencing.

Yet it's a monster swallowing up the environment.

[b4its2late]

I thought someone said that Kay Bailey Hutchison has put a roadblock on the funds for this fence? I hope not. Build the fence.

[gubamyster]

ping

[RTO]

“Areas of once-untouched desert are now disappearing under a lengthening slice of man-made fencing....

...The fence itself is an impressive, sun-blocking, engineering feat.”

RE: “Man-made fencing”? Is there a natural variety? And oh, THE HORROR! Our pristine desert is being marred and maligned... “dissapearing” under the “sun-blocking” monstrosity. What a bunch of pathologically-induced liberal B.B.S. (Bookoo Bull Sh*t!)

[tumblindice]

“We then climb inside one of the orange pick-up trucks used by a migrant help group, Grupo Beta.

The group, ***set up by the Mexican government***, takes us along the fence on the Mexican side. We go past migrants straining to look up at the immense structure before them.”

If Mexico refuses to pay repair costs due to their
countrymen damaging the fence—declare war on them.
I’ve about had my ration from our neighbors to the south.

[Jeff Head]

We need this type of double fence up along the entire border:

Like the one Hunter got through in California that is so effective. That fence should be regularly patrolled by the National Guard which would make good training for rotation to the Sand Box. That fence can then be backed up by electronic surveillance and UAVs in the air. The combination of those things in depth will work and stop virtually all intrusions.

...and the heck with what the illegal aliens out in the desert think about how "unfair" it is. They want fair...apply at the immigration office.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Estimates for the cost of the project have ranged from $2bn to $10bn (£1bn to £5bn).

And the estimated cost, please, of what is spent monthly for illegals' medical expenses, free schools, incarceration, etc? It is not even inconceivable that the portion of the $150 billion stimulus that will end up going to illegals will be equal to the entire cost of the fence.

[Jeff Head]

See my post 26.

[Eccl 10:2]

“Roughly a mile of fencing is being erected every month here.”

Excellent - according to my calculations the fence will be complete in time for July 4, 2169.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Roughly a mile of fencing is being erected every month here.<<<

Two sentences later it says that "another 700 miles is set to go up by the end of this year".

The guy is either lying or needs an accurate calander!

[avacado]

"I predict that someone will soon join this thread solely to complain...ignoring the progress being made."

They have already arrived in droves!

"Jorge won't build the fence, Jorge won't build the fence! What? Huh? They are building the fence? Whahaaaaaa... it's not being built fast enough! Whahaaaaaa..."

[subterfuge]

Nice catch.

[Red Badger]

At which time it will no longer be needed, because all of Mexico will be here..........

[Carry_Okie]

Once you fix your eyes on the line, it becomes clear this is one area where building is racing ahead.

Roughly a mile of fencing is being erected every month here.

I knew it was all about race, cuz it cain't be about speed.

[Army Air Corps]

No joke. If 700 miles will be completed by the end of the year, then that is pretty damned good.

[DoughtyOne]

The border is becoming another issue that is becoming hard to follow.

In California there is so much lying going on, that our state measures are nearly impossible to decipher.  The federal level is now stooping to the same tricks.

Today we have our leaders refering to twelve million illegal aliens in country.  That was roughly the figure they touted in 2000, ten million.  I'm surpposed to believe that only 2 million have come across in nearly eight years even thought ten came across in the previous ten.

We are told one week that funding for the fence to be built has been removed, and a few weeks later that the fence is going up at a rapid pace.

We are told that folks don't like illegal immigration, but they don't take measures to stop illegal immigration in it's tracks.

We are told that extending citizenship to people who have broken our laws is reasoned.  At the same time we are told that a small fine connected to citizenship, voids my ability to recognize it as amnesty.  We play silly word games and watch as a massive wave of immigrants becomes the landscape instead of adding a tinge of flavor, as was once intended.

I read these articles to try to keep up on what is going on, but I don't have any more confidence in it than those who have lied to us for decades on the subject.

[Reaganite1984]

Mr. Gambino, how do you feel about these new anti-racketeering laws?

[teawithmisswilliams]

To the extent the fence is being built at all, it's despite GWB; not because of him. Maybe the kid's crying because his country's being sold out by the Republican party.

[DoughtyOne]

It would seem to me that a team with ball and chain attached could do better than one mile per month, but what they heck. It’s clear our government is getting serious.

Siesta anyone?

[Southack]

"...patrolled by the National Guard which would make good training for rotation to the Sand Box. That fence can then be backed up by electronic surveillance and UAVs in the air. The combination of those things in depth..."

Just a nitpick, but redundancy or double/triple checks on a front line do not qualify as a defense in depth. A rearward fence or moat...an auxilary mobile force in the rear...that would qualify as defense in depth.