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Illegal Immigrant Influx Can Be Stopped: Build the Wall
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By E. Ralph Hostetter
May 9, 2006

History is replete with examples of nations, cultures and even empires having failed as a result of a loss of border patrol. Principal among the examples is the Roman Empire, the most powerful in all early history.

The United States of America has lost control of its southern border.

Counting the 6 million illegal immigrants granted amnesty in 1986, plus 12 million more illegals with added offspring over the past 20 years, a “nation” within our nation now exceeds 20 million, placing it on a par with Australia, population 20,155,000, which is ranked 53rd in world population. Of the 229 nations in the world, ranked by population, there are 174 nations with less population, ranking “illegal immigration nation – U.S.A.” the 54th largest in the world.

The magnitude of this illegal incursion is realized when consideration is given to the fact that it represents the entire population of Denmark, Sweden and Norway combined, or two and a half times the population of Austria, and for the most part, this population does not speak our national language, English.

With an annual growth rate of perhaps 800,000 per year, this "nation" will have four times the population of Switzerland in 10 more years. Add to this another four years, it could reach the population of Canada.

The solution to the problem, universally ignored, is preventing illegal Mexicans and others from crossing the border in the first place.

The illegal immigrant influx through Mexico must be physically stopped. No amount of afterthought solutions will work once they cross the border. Talk about rounding up the illegals and returning them across the border is just that, talk. No doubt ten years from now it will still be talked about and another 10 to 20 million illegals will have arrived.

It has been estimated to cost in excess of $10,000 to locate and deport each illegal alien here in America. The total cost would be some $200,000,000,000. Yes, two hundred billion dollars.

The mere mention of walls across the U.S.-Mexico border invokes bitter criticism.

Historically there are examples of walls built along national borders.

China's first continuous wall, today some 1,500 miles long, was completed during the Ch'in Dynasty in the Third Century B.C. It was improved and added to through the Ming Dynasty during the A.D. 1300-1400s.

Hadrian's Wall, built A.D. 122-126, proved very effective in keeping the marauding Scots from terrorist raids into Roman-occupied England.

The Berlin Wall proved very effective in keeping East Germans in their own country — and that's what America needs, a wall or barrier to keep Mexicans in their own country. Walls are called barriers today.

Barriers have been popular in the past and are very popular around the world today.

Old barriers exist between Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China (“PRC”), even after control of Hong Kong passed to the PRC in 1999.

Other barriers today are in Israel, Korea, Morocco, Spain and Thailand. Saudi Arabia is building a barrier across the Yemen Border.

The entire length of the Mexican-U.S. border is 1,951 miles. At $1 million per mile of barrier, the total cost for the entire border could be in the range of two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000), a mere one percent of the cost of returning those illegal aliens who already are here.

Finally, there is some encouraging news from Congress regarding barriers on the U.S. - Mexican Border. Representative F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced a bill, H.R. 4437 (the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005), with Amendment 648, authored by Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA), which was passed by the House of Representatives on December 16, 2005, with substantial bi-partisan support, 239 to 182.

Among many other important points, the Bill calls for an initial "700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexican Border at points with the highest number of immigrant deaths."

Hopefully this intelligent legislation will be expanded to include the entire 1,951 miles of common border.

Hands will be wrung and charges will be made that immigrants will tunnel under the fence or climb over it as they do with the stupid fence in existence that was designed with reinforcing ribs, which now serve as a ladder, placed on the Mexican side.

The fact remains barriers will make illegal immigration much more difficult than it has been up to now.

I can't wait for the day when Mexican Presidente Vicente Fox issues his plea on international TV, "Mr. Bush, tear down this wall."

E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and agricultural publisher, also is an award-winning columnist and Vice Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation Board of Directors.