Thread: U.S. adds 70 miles of border fencing

U.S. adds 70 miles of border fencing
By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

8:25 PM PDT, September 28, 2007

AN LUIS, Ariz. — The federal government's border fencing effort has accelerated rapidly in recent weeks with barriers rising in towns from California to New Mexico and workers completing the longest stretch of continuous fencing on the U.S.-Mexico frontier.

The Department of Homeland Security reached its goal of completing 70 miles of new fencing by the end of September , nearly doubling the amount of barriers that previously existed on the border, from 75 to about 145 miles.

"When we make a commitment, we will carry through on the commitment," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who went to Arizona on Friday in recognition of the progress and welded part of the fence in Douglas.

Whether the new fencing slows illegal immigration remains to be seen, but the project marks a milestone in another important way. Once limited mainly to cities, fencing is now going up in rural areas where illegal immigrant flows have shifted in recent years.

Fleets of tractor-trailers loaded with fence posts and pallets of steel tubing have been crossing remote highways and deserts on regular delivery runs. Crews of National Guard troops spend hours welding raw materials together under tarps. In some areas, contractors are installing the barriers at a pace of about a half- mile per day.

A line of towering steel now slices through a sea of sand of about 32 miles from San Luis to the Tinajas Atlas mountains. The fence, built to prevent incursions on the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range, is now the longest on the border, more than doubling the length of the 14-mile fence separating San Diego from Tijuana.

"This is going to be a rude awakening for the crowds (of immigrants) that come in the fall," said Welby Redwine, a Boeing engineer overseeing work in a canyon crisscrossed by smuggling trails in the Tinajas Atlas mountains, 40 miles from the nearest town. "When they see it, they're going to say, 'Wow, what happened?' "

In the Altar Valley, where hundreds of migrants have died of dehydration over the years trying to reach Tucson 70 miles away, a 15-foot high steel tube fence is rising. Authorities hope the fence can slow the country's busiest illegal immigrant corridor, country, where more than 1 million people have crossed in recent years.

In Calexico, the same style of fencing will block a 7 -mile border area where smugglers have easily launched boats across the All American Canal into California.

Other fencing has been built in the Arizona border towns of Naco and Douglas, and Columbus, N.M. And the government plans to break ground in coming months on projects from California to Texas.

The progress marks an abrupt turnaround from one month ago when Homeland Security reported completing only 15 of the 70 miles promised by Sept. 30 , drawing criticism from many Republicans and anti-illegal immigration groups. The Secure Fence Act, passed last fall, called for 700 miles of new fencing. The administration set a goal of completing nearly 300 miles by 2008.

The fencing project got off to a slow start because of environmental assessments, land acquisition and fence design issues that had to be completed before the start of construction, officials said.

The more recent rapid pace of fence construction has been welcomed by federal border officials whose broader security plan -- called the Secure Border Initiative -- has experienced setbacks in recent weeks.

An Arizona project to line the border with camera towers as part of a "virtual fence" of high-technology tools has fallen behind schedule. Chertoff has suspended funding to Boeing Co., the company overseeing the project, until progress is made.

New barriers have made a significant impact here in San Luis, once one of the busiest-crossing points in the nation. Migrants by the hundreds used to jump over the original steel-mat fencing and disappear into nearby neighborhoods west of town.

That route is now blocked by two new layers of fencing: A 15-foot-high steel mesh secondary barrier and a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The number of illegal immigrants apprehended per day has dropped from 800 to as low as 15 in the area, according to officials.

Border experts say it is too soon to determine the effort's overall success or failure, pointing out that previous fencing projects, most notably in San Diego, served to shift migrant traffic elsewhere.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar, in an interview in San Diego, said next year's plan to complete 225 more miles of fencing will anticipate shifts in immigration patterns, much of it controlled by organized smuggling rings.

"For the first time," Aguilar said, "we're getting ahead of where the criminal organizations are going to go."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ome-center

This was mentioned on Lou's show tonight. Believe they said this fence is a single layer one only about 12 ft tall.

Image that goes with above article. What do you think? The fence looks wimpy to me.

Yep, good place for some ladders.

Filed under meaningless political gesture designed for campaign speeches.

"When we make a commitment, we will carry through on the commitment," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Belly laugh.

I thought it was suppose to be a two layer fence with barbed wire on top of each and a road that goes in between or on one side of the two fences. So border patrol agents could easily travel along it.

In fact I swear there was a picture of it. This is not the fence that was suppose to be built.

Well here are some pictures at this site. The fence looks more promising here.


http://www.house.gov/hunter/fence.htm

Originally Posted by skeptic

Well here are some pictures at this site. The fence looks more promising here.


http://www.house.gov/hunter/fence.htm

The fence Congressman Hunter was able to get built at the border of San Diego is awesome.

But I don't think this link has anything to do with the recent fencing being built.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Illegal migrants really degrade the environment.

They don't stop at the environment Mr. Chertoff, they degrade every facet of our lives here in the US.
They degrade our schools,health care, our feeling of security and safety, and just the general population's collective IQ.