Thread: Border fence is lousy fix for complex problem

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/119519

Published: 03.13.2006

Border fence is lousy fix for complex problem
Our view: Sen. Kyl's support for barrier sidesteps tougher issues of poor migrants drawn by jobs, employers who hire them
Sen. Jon Kyl should know better. As a longtime Arizonan, he should understand that more fencing along the border will not curtail illegal immigration.

So it was surprising that Kyl last week introduced an amendment in federal legislation that would build up to 50 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. He says the plan would cost an estimated $700 million.

In a story in Friday's Star, Kyl said, "We've tried for a long time to get more resources to the state of Arizona to gain control of the border, and it's a good step in that direction."

Some border officials and activists don't agree with him.
In Friday's story, Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, whose town would be among those getting improved fencing, called Kyl's plan the "idea of the month" and "a waste of taxpayers' money."

Jennifer Allen of the Border Action Network, a Tucson-based advocacy group, says walls will do little to keep poor people from trying to cross the border illegally.

Borane and Allen know what Kyl also surely knows. Mexicans, Central Americans and people from many other parts of the world enter this country illegally to find work. And no amount of fencing will keep a determined human being from finding a way around, over or under a barrier.

Jobs are the carrot at the end of the stick. Until you take that carrot away, people will keep reaching for it.
But making jobs off-limits to illegal entrants would be difficult. You'd have to crack down on employers, which governments at all levels, so far, seem unwilling to do.

Employers have money and power. If they don't like government policies that would affect them, they fight back.
But who's going to counterpunch when you want to put up new fences? Some landowners might cause a stir and local government officials can complain.

Lawmakers can put up a fence and shout, "See, we're doing something."
All fencing has done in recent years is shift the routes that illegal immigrants use to enter the United States — often with deadly results. Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garza told the Star in January that at least 217 illegal entrants died in the Tucson sector in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Kyl says building fences in urban areas is effective. He cites decreases in crime, improved environmental health and enhanced law enforcement in places were fences have gone up.

What he can't boast, however, is that illegal immigration has gone down.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based research group, reported last week that the number of illegal entrants in the United States has grown to as many as 12 million. The country has added 850,000 illegal entrants each year since 2000, the center says.

Even proponents of border fencing find the piecemeal approach lacking. If you're going to build a fence, they say, make it a big one that runs the entire 2,300 miles of the border.

"It's got to be continuous or (illegal entrants) will just go around it," Glenn Spencer, founder of American Border Patrol, told the Star last week.
Fortifying our borders with fences simply hasn't worked. If illegal immigration was a baseball game and fences were the pitcher, the fences would have been pulled, showered and dressed by now.

Another solution is needed. Kyl and other federal lawmakers should leave the easy stuff for later and tackle the difficult issues first.

They should find a way for immigrants to come to the country — legally — to do the work many Americans don't want to do.

They should cooperate with Mexico's government to reduce the number of people wanting to cross the border illegally. And, most importantly, they should pass laws to penalize companies that hire illegal labor.

I get so sick of hearing all about how a fence won't work. How do they know? It hasn't been done--not the way we want it done. Of course if you have ten miles of fence and people can beat a path to walk around it they are sure to do that. Of course if you put up a chain link fence and nobody to watch what's going on, people are going to cut it. But if the fence was continuous, 1,8-however-many-miles of it, I bet you dollars to donuts it would do a lot of good.

The Great Wall of China had guard towers within sight of each other. It worked pretty good.

One of the so called 7 wonders of the world, isn't it? And the guard towers would eliminate the worry that someone would build a taller ladder.
Sounds like a perfect plan to me.