Although this is letter to the editor from a person in San Diego I was glad to see it printed on a Virginia website.
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http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007 ... 007/253708

Don't tell me border fence won't work

Date published: 1/29/2007



I really must take exception to a recent Free Lance-Star editorial titled "Foil the fence" [Jan. 21].

I live in San Diego, where the border crossings rank as the most heavily traveled in the world.

We also had the dubious honor of the heaviest illegal border crossings. It was so dangerous that it was the subject of the best-selling nonfiction book, "Lines and Shadows," written by Joseph Wambaugh.

He graphically wrote about rapes and even murders committed nightly by Mexican bandits in the "no-man's zone" adjacent to the border between San Diego and Tijuana.

Since that time, the Border Patrol has constructed a 13-mile series of fences in the same area, which has been transformed.

Where there was once lawless chaos, there now is a new subdivision of homes, an international marketplace with upscale merchandise, a children's park, and many other amenities.

While I do not believe that it is practical to fence the entire border with Mexico, there is no doubt that fences on the most heavily traveled routes can successfully interdict smugglers.

They can be built in urban areas, between physical impediments such as mountains and deserts, and in areas where surveillance by cameras, ground detectors, and radar will be able to detect illegal entry.

No fence has ever succeeded without constant supervision, however there are numerous instances where fences have proved to be highly successful deterrents.

Byron Slater

San Diego