Thread: Razor-wire fence slows attacks on B.P. agents UPDATED

Border Patrol says fence slows attacks on agents

November 19, 2008, 1;2 am San Diego



In this Nov. 17, 2008 file photo, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle stands guard along the border fence with its concertino wire topping it, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File) — AP

ELLIOT SPAGAT, The Associated Press

The Border Patrol has finished installing razor-sharp barbed wire atop a 5-mile stretch of fence on the Mexican border, an addition critics call heavy-handed and an eyesore.

Agents say the concertino wire on a violent stretch separating San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, has already contributed to a sharp drop in attacks by assailants hurling rocks, bricks and sometimes even exploding bottles of gas.

"The effects have been phenomenal," Michael Corley, head of the Border Patrol's Imperial Beach station, said at a news conference Tuesday after a crew installed the last piece of wire.

Without the wire, migrants could jump the fence in only 15 seconds. But it now takes several minutes for them to cut a hole in the fence using handheld, battery-powered saws, Corley said.

Mexico's consul general in San Diego, Remedios Gomez Arnau, said efforts by Mexican authorities to prevent attacks on border agents may explain the drop in violence, not the razor wire. She said the Border Patrol rejected her plea to reconsider installing the wiring.

The 5-mile stretch is the only place on the U.S.-Mexico border with razor wiring on top of the fence, and there are no plans to use it elsewhere, said Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling.

The fence blocks a hardscrabble Tijuana neighborhood where the Border Patrol began firing tear gas and powerful pepper-spray weapons last year in response to Mexican assailants. Innocent families were caught in the melee.

The counterattacks have diminished, according to the Border Patrol, as the more formidable fencing appears to have pushed border crossers elsewhere, heralding a welcome calm for many who live in the shanties.

The United States "is just protecting its private property," said Tijuana resident Jose Arias Martinez, 75, whose pregnant daughter-in-law fainted last year when tear gas fired by the Border Patrol seeped through his walls. "If I had the money, I would build a fence around my home, too."

Jose Ramirez, 58, said the razor-wire fence that he can see from the kitchen window of his Tijuana home will only push migrants to less guarded – and more dangerous – terrain.

"It's very ugly," said Ramirez, who keeps a tear gas canister from last year's attacks amid the cactus in his backyard. "How sad that it has come to this."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last month that attacks on agents were an "unhappy" consequence of heightened enforcement. The Border Patrol said its agents were attacked 1,097 times during the fiscal year that ended in September, an 11 percent increase from 987 a year earlier.

Many occurred in the San Diego area, but the Border Patrol said attacks dropped in the 5-mile stretch where the razor-wire was installed. It counted 90 attacks on agents in the 11 months after installation began Dec. 17, compared to 184 in the preceding 11 months.

Apprehensions in the 5-mile stretch dropped 53 percent during that time to 3,746 from 7,989, the Border Patrol said. Corley said the fencing has pushed migrants west toward the Pacific Ocean – and resulted in more attacks against agents in that area.

Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, a group that assists migrants, said the wiring resembles the Berlin Wall and reminds him of thousands of migrants who have died trying to cross the border.

"The razor wire is immoral, it's wrong, and it symbolizes the worst of the American spirit," he said.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...v19-story.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Mexico's consul general in San Diego, Remedios Gomez Arnau, said she urged the Border Patrol to stop installation of the razor wire, but the agency refused. She said migrants may get injured and the wiring was inconsistent with being good neighbors.

Invading your neighbor and killing 5000 of them every year is also not being a "good neighbor"!!! Can you believe the attitude of these people?

Of course it would help of more of our Congresspeople pointed this out to Mexico.

Border Patrol claiming success along local fence

By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

6:54 p.m. November 18, 2008

The Border Patrol is claiming success along a formerly chaotic five-mile stretch of the border between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry, where fencing was raised and reinforced with razor-studded concertina wire.

Tuesday, agents in San Diego celebrated the completion of the wire project, begun last December and mostly finished about two months ago. According to the agency, both illegal-crossing arrests and assaults against agents in the area are down by more than 50 percent.

However, a growing number of apprehensions and assaults are now occurring west of the San Ysidro port of entry, and overall arrests in San Diego County continue to rise. And while smugglers are having a harder time leading people over the fence with flexible ladders as they once did, inventive ones are now using battery-powered saws to cut through it instead.
Still, “if you look at incremental gains of operational control, this is one piece,â€

Well it is about time....I have been saying if it keeps people in prison it should keep people out of the country that don't belong here

[b]“No one condones the violence (against Border Patrol agents), but the razor wire is immoral, it's wrong, and it symbolizes the worst of the American spirit,â€

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3742--0-0.html

[quote="azwreath"][b]“No one condones the violence (against Border Patrol agents), but the razor wire is immoral, it's wrong, and it symbolizes the worst of the American spirit,â€

War zone: The wire goes up

The Border Patrol is claiming success along a chaotic five-mile stretch of the border between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry, where fencing was raised and reinforced with razor-studded concertina wire.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...r15-story.html





In this Nov. 17, 2008 file photo, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle stands guard along the border fence with its concertino wire topping it, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File) — AP

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

War zone: The wire goes up

The Border Patrol is claiming success along a chaotic five-mile stretch of the border between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry, where fencing was raised and reinforced with razor-studded concertina wire.

(See a picture of the fence at this link.)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... fence.html

Now that's what I call a terrific landscaping job

[quote]“(The United States) is just protecting its private property,â€