Thread: Pol Chats Create Border 'Incidents'

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB ... in_tff_top

Walls Fall, but May Buy Time;
Pol Chats Create Border 'Incidents'

By JENNIFER JOHNSON and AARON RUTKOFF
October 3, 2006

Border Lines is a regular look at the best writing on the immigration debate from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscription.)

* * *
IN DEFENSE OF THE FENCE: United Press International news analyst Martin Sieff puts the 700-mile border fence, which has now been approved by both the House and the Senate, into historical perspective. "It is certainly the case that in the long run of decades, generations and centuries, eventually long walls or border fences usually do come tumbling down," he concedes to critics of the proposal. "But they usually work very well indeed for a very long time first." From the Great Wall of China to the Maginot Line and the Berlin Wall, Mr. Sieff observes, these now-crumbling walls all proved more than adequate in their day.

The new vogue for border barriers, Mr. Sieff suggests, can be traced to former Israeli Primer Minster Ariel Sharon, who managed to take the teeth out of Palestinian terrorism with his West Bank wall. "Sharon's achievement not only defeated the Second Intifada," he writes, "it also transformed the strategic assessments of nations and militaries facing guerrilla campaigns based from outside their own borders all around the world." Now the Indian government has hastened work on their own fence along the Line of Control in Kashmir, hoping to frustrate the vast majority of Pakistani incursions. Even Saudi Arabia, Mr. Sieff says, is at work on a wall to keep out illegal immigrants from Yemen.

The success of the U.S. fence, he concludes, should also be kept in careful perspective. It is not designed to be a fix-all, despite the claims of some of its political supporters. "It appears to be a measure designed to buy time. But time is often the most precious commodity any political measure can buy."

* * *
SEEING GREEN: In an overlooked corner of the political sphere, lines are being drawn in the immigration debate. The mainstream environmental movement has declined to take sideson the issue, but a small band of green activists have been pushing the movement toward an anti-immigration stance, writes Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times. These folks have broken ranks from their counterparts, saying mainstream environmentalists are "committing political malpractice" by ignoring the issue.

"Nobody denies that environmental degradation is due in part to population growth, and nobody denies that the biggest reason for population growth is immigration," says Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for Immigration Reform. "But somehow, when they put together A and B, it doesn't lead to C."

Other environmentalists admit that they tread lightly when it comes to illegal immigration in order to protect their work on other environmental issues. "If we'd gotten involved with the immigration issue, we would have burned a lot of bridges," says Sierra Club spokesman Eric Antebi.

One issue that could unite the environmental community is environmental decline near the border. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that only 1% of the 25 million tons of garbage left in the Southern Arizona desert has been hauled off since 2002.

* * *
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Greg Mankiw, the former chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, points on his blog this week to new immigration research by fellow Harvard economist Michael Kremer and IMF economist Stanley Watt. The study suggests that domestic work performed by immigrants may be improving conditions for low-skilled native-born workers. The economists argue that when low-wage immigrant laborers find work as nannies and housekeepers in U.S. households, more well-educated American women are able to enter the labor force.

* * *
BORDER VOLLEYBALL: The debate over immigration has turned the U.S.-Mexico border into something of a political arena. Earlier this summer, however, a writer from L.A. Weekly and a small team of filmmakers decided to transform the international dividing line into a sports area. As Joshuah Bearman explains in his first-person account of the adventure, this unnamed and little-known beach outside of San Diego features a "fence of metal pylons that draws a 20-foot-tall line in the sand all the way into the sea," making for an extreme and unorthodox volleyball set up.

Mr. Bearman and one of the filmmakers -- dressed, as luck would have it, in matching tank-tops -- made up Team U.S.A.; two men on the other side agreed to form Team Mexico. "Beach volleyball is a much different game when played over two-story metal pylons. Strategy and nuance go out the window," Mr. Bearman says. "The ball hangs in the air so long that a lot of time is spent looking skyward, bracing for another bump that hopefully goes in the right direction."

U.S. Border Patrol agents show little interest in the hour-long match. One agent does interrupt the affair when a post-game, cross-border photography session turns too jovial. The agent, Mr. Bearman reports, was willing to confirm that what transpired was the "first-ever game of international border volleyball."

* * *
WATCHING THE WATCHERS: An investigative report published in California's Inland Valley Daily Bulletin finds that U.S. border agents can be disciplined and even suspended for talking to visiting politicians without proper authorization. Agents, reporter Sara A. Carter notes, "were required to file Significant Incident Reports – normally used for shootings and other serious border incidents – when congressional representatives made unannounced visits this summer along the U.S.-Mexico border." In one case, an agent was suspended for ten days just for speaking to Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa). "Filing these reports is a form of intimidation," he told the reporter. "If anyone is going to be punished, then they should be punished for not speaking to a member of Congress, rather than for telling the truth." The mandatory reporting policy, if enacted to control the flow of first-hand information to congress, might also violate part of the law that created the Department of Homeland Security, the article notes.

* * *
CHICAGO CASE: Previously in this column, we mentioned an illegal immigrant woman who had taken refuge in a Chicago-area church to avoid deportation. On Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed on her behalf by the church's pastor which argued that the rights of her 7-year-old son would be violated if his mother, Elvira Arellano, were deported.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve sided with the government, finding that in prior cases, the courts found that "a removal order does not impinge on constitutional rights because a citizen child remains free to exercise his right to live in the United States." Prosecutors had argued it was hypocritical for Ms. Arellano to seek protection under the law while knowingly violating it.

Ms. Arellano says she will remain holed up in the church. "I want to stay here with my son," she said in Spanish, according to the Associated Press. "I'm not just fighting for my situation ... you can't separate families."

* * *
FENCE FIGHTS? Getting approval for 700 miles of fencing along the border was the easy part, says Dave Montgomery of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Now, the government is likely to face resistance from landowners, which could lead to costly and time-consuming land-right fights. "We've got a lot of large landowners who are not keen on the idea," says Rick Glancey of El Paso, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition. "I don't think they want to see a gigantic fence on the back end of their property."

* * *
SOUND BITES

J. Allen Carnes, president of Winter Garden Produce in Uvalde, Texas, on the recent shortage of immigrant farm labor: "There becomes a point where the paperwork and time doesn't equal the money. I think we just scared them off with all the talk about immigration and closing the borders."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) in a press release: "Congressional Republicans aren't serious about doing anything to get control of our broken immigration system. They've made clear they have no interest in going to a conference to enact legislation this year. This is about November. This is about incumbent protection, not about border protection."

Other environmentalists admit that they tread lightly when it comes to illegal immigration in order to protect their work on other environmental issues. "If we'd gotten involved with the immigration issue, we would have burned a lot of bridges," says Sierra Club spokesman Eric Antebi.

THIS is an out and out LIE. They're protecting several things. One is their funding. They don't want to slice the throat that feeds them so they won't touch the ILLEGAL mess with a ten foot pole.

HOWEVER, the other is their ties to BIG BUSINESS!!! The Sierra club is yet another front for Globalists and this has been a well kept secret until recently. I believe they are also involved in the background with the NAFTA SUPER HIGHWAY or something connected to it.

{I have to make a call to round up the docs re: Sierra/Greens}

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) in a press release: "Congressional Republicans aren't serious about doing anything to get control of our broken immigration system. They've made clear they have no interest in going to a conference to enact legislation this year. This is about November. This is about incumbent protection, not about border protection."

It's better than electing a bunch of liberal pinheads and having them just give out amnesty like there was no tomorrow.