Thread: Discovery adds to debate over border enforcement

http://www.signonsandiego.com


Discovery adds to debate over border enforcement

By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 5, 2006

On the surface, the stretch of U.S.-Mexico border just west of the Otay Mesa port of entry looks heavily fortified: two rows of tall fence with a wide strip of no man's land in between, illuminated at night by stadium-style lighting.

Yet roughly 90 feet beneath the fences and lights runs the longest smuggling tunnel ever discovered along the border. The 2,400-foot passageway was discovered late last month, almost two years after its construction began. Inside sat more than two tons of marijuana.

The ease with which drug traffickers had access to the United States, beneath what appears to be state-of-the art border security, has some border experts and observers questioning just how well the nation's current border-enforcement strategies are working.

The question has taken on added urgency given the tunnel's discovery Jan. 24, just a week before Congress reconvened. One of several proposed immigration reform bills on the table is a House-approved measure calling for 700 additional miles of fencing in Southwest border states. Another bill pending in the House calls for fencing off the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

“If we're going to build a fence, how deep and how high do we have to build it?â€

It seems to me that work being done on a tunnel that long...would be obvious to observers at some point. I believe they said the tunnel exited in a warehouse in Calif? Surely there had to be increased foot traffic? Traffic of some sort?

Most certainly the other end of the tunnel in Mexico had to have been observable...I mean...that would require the removal of tons of dirt...the application of the cement would have required dozens of workers...

What the heck is really going on???

RR

But until federal enforcement efforts focus less on the border and more on the root causes of illegal human and drug traffic, some say, the border will continue to be breached. “They want people to look down the border and see fences, see agents out there, and think: 'My tax dollars are being well spent. I can sleep safely at night,' â€