Remember the so-called humanitarian crisis when more than 60,000 unaccompanied minors slipped across the US-Mexico border in a matter of mere months and turned themselves in to border patrol authorities?
No one at the time questioned how it had come to be that after the US. Congress authorized billions to erect the so-called Border Wall minors could so easily sneak into this country and not even try to hide from the Border Patrol and the high-tech tools that have been provided to stop such an event.
But now that the "crisis" has receded to the point where the State of Texas and its states' rights – and politically driven – governor Rick Perry has withdrawn the thousands of National Guardsmen to their respective homes, it's a good time to ask how it was possible.
A 2,000 mile state-of-the-art border fence was estimated to cost between $4 and $8 billion dollars. Costs for a wall that would run the entire length of the border were estimated as low as $851 million for a standard 10-foot prison chain link fence topped by razor wire. For another $362 million, the fence could be electrified.
Admittedly, there has never been a wall built across the entire border.
Then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said a wall running the length of a border would cost too much.
Some estimates put the cost of a 2,000 mile state-of-the-art border fence would cost between $4 and $8 billion dollars.
Regardless of the estimates, the sections of fence and additional manpower deployed into the region obviously didn't deter the syndicates of human smuggling who figured out the legal loophole to defeat the security measures and place the minors on the U.S. border.
So what are those congressmen and their constituents who have pushed for more Border Walls and boots on the ground have to say to the ease in which those security measures have been defeated by those who would profit from doing it?
Could it be that it won't take walls or soldiers on the border to discourage those on the other side from crossing it?
Those who continue to advocate a border-security-first approach to immigration reform would be well advised to analyze the torrent of minors and women defeated the costly obstacle and to decide whether comprehensive immigration reform can wait for a seemingly impossible guarantee that a wall can stop people determined to cross it.
6 comments:
Bring the Chinese who constructed the Great Wall and still it would be a total failure. Remember the Berlin Wall ? Remember the Maginot Line? Remember Hadrian's Wall? What's needs to be done is to Corral some of these mad U.S. Republican Congressmen and have them corralled guarded by Vaqueros . (No water). See if they like it!.
Juan, here is my solution to Immigration reform. As soon as people cross any border. Take them into custody, enter them into the system, load them in a military transport, airplane prefered, and send them back to their country.
3 million people will be added to the unemployment lines. Brownsville has the unemployment of Hispanics close to 14% presently.
It is higher for the people called dreamers. Obama went meant well, but, many locals are not in agreement.
The border wall was a good business for the Bush family and his friends.
A lot of latin american families do not want to come and live in the U.S. but just work and get paid in dollars. Why not a temporary worker permit for agricultural workers or other areas in which services are needed and americans dont apply to those jobs? Canada has a temporary workers program and many men and women from latin america work 6 to 8 months a year LEGALLY then return to their countries. The companies or farmers/ranchers that hire them on temporary basis provide food and shelter plus limited medical coverage. One of the countries that participates in that program with Canada is Mexico.
The notion of sealing the Texas-Mexico border is a laughable goal advocated by those with their heads up their asses about he reality of the border or those who advocate extreme violence against the immigrants.
They only way possible to do that is with the application of Draconian violence and slaughter of innocents. There are people who advocate such violence and slaughter on the border.
Such extreme actions would deter people from crossing, but it would destroy the soul of America and who would want to live in a country that would do that?
I am a gringo de raza pura whose ancestors came to these shores in 1619 (Jamestown VA), but I would leave this country if it did what some folks advocate.
Taking human's life away for what ever reason is not the answer to anything. I am sure that work permits would be one solutions. I know many people from Mexico, really like living in their country. Why not allow them, to come and work for 6 to 8 months of the year. And then allow them to return.
Anyone who advocates killing is plum loco.
The Brown Peril is going to get you ! Remember Hearst ?
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