Border Fence
is a Domestic Policy centric issue
No, we are a country built on LEGAL immigrants. and the age of mass imigration has gone, or at least waning. In this horrible world full of people just hoping to blow some C4 in NYC, we have no choice to put up tight and rigid security around ourselves. Con no mas illegales, a large part of welfare and public housing will be turned back over to the real citizens. Also a chunk of Drug and Gang crimes will be 'cured' if we get tough.
A trash filled moat? A novel, but unworkable solution. I don't know how the immigration issue will get worked out politically but the sooner the better in my opinion. This nation needs immigrants, especially with our looming problems related to the aging of the Boomers.
I was going to reply, but then I read the responses... it really shows how hopeless and desperate people on both side of the issue feel.
Oh and "world full of people just hoping to blow some C4 in NYC." Really? full? totally full? 12 million 'undocumented' immigrants from the south... you'd think, since they are all trying, at least a couple would have blown some sh*t up already.
You gotta love American Bigotry... it isn't that kind where we're all the same so we can pretend there isn't any (looking at you here, China), It's that kind that lurks around every corner.
I'm not a particularly big fan of the food critic/travel channel host Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations) but when I have access to cable, I'l watch anything... Anyway, he did an episode on TexMex in which he got pretty familiar with the border region and it was really interesting to see how opposed the US border communities are to a fence or to get-tough immigration policies.
Hell, I'm just waiting for France to ask for the statue back... I mean, the least we could do, if we're just shutting the gates is take down the 'beacon' - right?
10 foot fence means someone will have 12 foot ladder it defeat the purpose. More foot soliders on the border. Pragmatic immigration reform is needed, and fence is just hiding the real issuse that immigration is based on family instead of work skills. Need higher fines on employers, and more tranparent immigration system. Could deport millions of people, but that does not slove the problem. More liberal immigration policy with Mexico could help somewhat, but I figure the issuse will be around 50 years from now with Mexico like usuall.
Lets end the subsidies to American farmers as apart of our comprehensive immigration reform! That way, there will be jobs awaiting Mexicans and other Latin Americans once they return home and there will be fewer jobs available to them in the states. We can let the market solve ~90% of the immigration "problem," which is infinitely more effective than a fence other putative measures.
gizmosellschickens says:
"10 foot fence means someone will have 12 foot ladder it defeat the purpose."
I definitely agree with that. Just as a 10-foot fence will recieve
the response of a 12-foot ladder, the fence the government has
proposed is only like 700 miles long--not nearly the length of the
border. That's just an insult to the intelligence of our friendly
neighbors to the south. As for the dump along the border--I
honestly thought you were joking at first. I'm not going to attack
you, Josh, for your ideas, and I'm glad you posted them, but I am
going to attack those ideas: a dump along the border is a) one of
the most idiotic ideas I've ever heard and b) not only a travesty
when it comes to the immigration issue, but also when it comes to
the issue of the environment. How about we make reforms so that we
don't need a fence OR a garbage dump?
Here is a good idea, it controls immigration plus is eco friendly! It is sarcastically called a moat, but more accurately it is reclaimed wetlands.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080313/lf_nm/usa_border_moat_dc
By Tim Gaynor Thu Mar 13, 8:21 AM ET
YUMA, Arizona (Reuters) - Most plans to gain control of the porous U.S.-Mexico border focus on some combination of fence. But this city in far west Arizona is looking to build a moat.
Faced with high-levels of crime and illegal immigration, authorities in Yuma are reaching back to a technique as old as a medieval castle to dig out a "security channel" on a crime-ridden stretch of the border and fill it with water.
"The moats that I've seen circled the castle and allowed you to protect yourself, and that's kind of what we're looking at here," said Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden, who is backing the project.
Curbing illegal immigration and securing the nearly 2,000 mile (3,200-kilometre) southwestern border are hot topics in this U.S. election year. Washington has pledged to complete 670 miles of new barriers by the close of 2008, despite resistance from landowners and environmentalists.
The proposal seeks to restore a stretch of the West's greatest waterway, the Colorado River, which has been largely sucked dry by demand from farms and sprawling subdivisions springing up across the parched southwest and in neighboring California.
The plan to revive the river, which drains from the Rocky Mountains through the Grand Canyon and runs for 23 miles (37 kilometers) along the border near Yuma, seeks to create a broad water barrier while also restoring a fragile wetland environment that once thrived in the area.
"What you are building is a moat, but it's bringing the life and the wildlife back," said Ogden, an Old West lawman with a handlebar mustache, explaining how the project differs from other plans to fix the border.
"It's innovative thinking. It doesn't take much brainpower to build a 12-foot high fence around something, but this is unique."
more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080313/lf_nm/usa_border_moat_dc
hrm, a moat? oh i get it, cause i forgot wetbacks can't swim.
I used the term wetback in reference to a name they got from crossing the Rio Grande at the Texas border. So yes, they can swim, and will swim across it if necessary. A moat is still a fence, and a fence becomes a wall, and walls only work if you have hoards of angry Mongolians riding on horseback coming towards you.
I don't think we're short on ideas for physically deterring migrants from crossing the boarder. But fences and moats are band-aid solutions that may be necessary in the short term, but do not address the crux of the problem- economic opportunity. Since many of the US' policies promote migration, I believe we need to reevaluate our agriculture, trade, and of course, immigration policies with the goal of working towards a holistic, compassionate, practical, and lasting solution.
