Finally - A Use For The Border Fence

The Bush administration, in its pandering to the racist immigrant-hating base of the Republican Party, wasted billions of dollars building an unnecessary fence on our southern border. The expensive fence has done nothing to curtail either drug smuggling or the entry of undocumented workers. Our weak economy has done more to slow down entry of the undocumented workers than the fence ever could.

What it has done is harm the border environment, economically devastate cities on both sides of the border and harm the relations between the United States and a friendly neighbor. We have simply thrown billions of dollars down the drain building what I have believed is a totally useless fence.

But maybe I was wrong. It seems that some enterprising Mexican nationals have found a use for the fence, or at least the materials used to build it. They think it makes great scrap metal.

The Tijuana Police have arrested at least six men who were dismantling the wall to sell it off as scrap metal. On Monday, they arrested two men they caught cutting sections from the fence, and then apprehended another on Tuesday who had 11 pieces of the fence. The U.S. Border Patrol notified them of three other suspects.

I think we ought to let them dismantle the fence and sell it for scrap metal. At least, the ridiculous fence would be doing some good for someone that way.