The right-wing seems convinced that the only way to protect ourselves is to build a fence on the border. Of course no one is talking about building a fence on our northern border (after all, those are white people). It's just those brown people on our southern border that they want to keep out.
Of course the fence idea is ridiculous. As one politician said, if you build a 10-foot high fence, you'll just sell a lot of 12-foot ladders. A fence won't keep people out any better than the wall in Berlin kept people in. Desperate people have always found a way to get around fences, and they always will.
And by the way, there is still not a single verified instance of a terrorist entering our country by illegally crossing our southern border. And why should they? There is no reason to risk such a dangerous journey. All they need is a little paperwork and they can fly in or drive across our northern border (as many have). And they have the money to buy the best paperwork available.
The people crossing our southern border are not terrorists. They are fathers and mothers desperate to find any kind of job so they can feed, clothe and shelter their families. In their situation we would do the same (and if you wouldn't, then you're not much of a parent).
The people crossing our southern borders are also not criminals. Most of them are too afraid of being caught and deported to commit foolish crimes and draw attention to themselves. I have been employed in various aspects of law enforcement in Texas for over 25 years, and I can tell you the vast majority of criminals in Texas are US citizens.
There are drugs crossing our southern border, but anyone with any sense knows these are entering by boat, airplanes or trucks. If the only way to get drugs into our country was to walk them across our southern deserts, our drug problem would have been eradicated a long time ago.
A fence on our southern border will do nothing to protect us from terrorists or criminals. It will only cut off our farmers and ranchers from the river, endanger the area's wildlife and create ill-feelings between the US and Mexico.
The fence was a stupid and racist idea when it was proposed, and it still is.
Whereas I'm also skeptical about how effective the fence would be in stemming illegal immigration in and of itself, your analogy to the Berlin Wall is faulty. In the 28 years of the Wall's existence, there were only about 5,000 successful escapes to West Berlin (Here's my source).
ReplyDeleteI think most opponents of illegal immigration would settle for an average of less than 180 illegal border crossers a year.
Give me a break!
ReplyDeleteThat wall didn't keep anyone in. The border guards armed with machine guns and "orders to kill" were very effective though.
You saw what happened when the guards stopped shooting -- thousands began to cross and the wall was torn down.
I hope you're not suggesting we give our border patrol machine guns and orders to "shoot to kill"!
When I think of the Berlin Wall (which BTW I legally traversed into East Berlin - and back! - twice before its demise in 1989), I think of its totality: guard towers, minefields, armed patrols with orders to "shoot to kill", etc. I guess if you're talking about the Wall qua wall, then you're right; it wouldn't have been very effective. But that's not what the Berlin Wall was. At least not until the collapse of the so-called German Democratic Republic.
ReplyDeleteConversely, a 700-mile fence equipped with guard towers, minefields and armed patrols with orders to "shoot to kill" would be equally as effective as the Berlin Wall. But I don't know of any sane person who'd propose anything that draconian for our borders. That would be adopting a system that we fought so hard to defeat. Nor do I know of anyone who seriously believes that a fence in and of itself is the only answer.
A sane immigration policy involves much more, such as considering the lives of those law-biding, hard immigrants who are already here, while at the same time acknowledging that open borders with absolutely no control over who comes into this country will eventually mean national suicide in a post-9-11 world.
The irony of this issue is that there are people on both the Left and the Right who favor the status quo (or some variation of it). For those on the Right, it's a never-ending source of cheap labor that can be intimidated with the threat of deportation. I'll leave it to others to define the Left's motives.
But for all Americans, the overriding issue should be security. My position is this: Enforce the borders first (i.e. rational legal immigration), then after two to five years (if we've been successful), let's revisit the issue of legal status of those who are already here.