USA to Build 700-Mile Fence along 1,900-Mile Border

If further proof were needed that America’s Incumbent Party of politicians are cynical, self-serving, and gutless, the president provided it yesterday when he signed a bill providing for a 700-mile fence along the US border with Mexico. This lets everyone say they voted to defend the border while not undermining the economic interests that rely on illegal immigrants to flourish. Three facts support this: a 700-mile fence leaves 1,200 miles unfenced; the bill provided no funding to erect the fence; and around half of America’s illegal immigrants don’t cross the border without papers but rather overstay their visas. And the real issue is the demand rather than the supply anyway.

As in Iraq-Nam, America is fighting the wrong war in the wrong way. Border security is, of course, vital to any polity and will be so long as sovereignty is based upon territoriality. Unbridled, unfettered, unregulated immigration can undermine a society – ask the Apaches, Lakota and Seminoles. However, any laws that are ineffective or address non-existent problems merely divert resources from the need to regulate who may and may not enter a country, any country.

Nativists speak of sealing the border, and unless one is prepared to erect a Berlin Wall, it isn’t feasible. Although the Mexican president has already compared the proposed partial fence to that monstrosity, there are to significant differences. The Berlin Wall was built to keep people in, not out, and it covered the entire border between the two sides of that city. This is a case of both sides talking unrealistic rubbish. A fence that is more gap than barrier isn’t much of a deterrent; so perhaps, the Mexican government should spend a bit more time on dealing with its own problems and stop worrying about US construction projects. Meanwhile, the “seal the border” bunch need to ask themselves how much in taxes they are prepared to pay to do so.

This is where the joke really is on the American people. This vote to boost border security doesn’t provide a penny to actually build the fence. Last month, a $1.2 billion down payment did appear in the appropriations bill for the Heimatschutzministerium (or the Department of Homeland Security if one prefers). However, that money can also be spent on “access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border,” according to CNN.

Best of all, stopping the immigrants from running across America’s southern border isn’t as big an issue as getting people to leave once their visas expire – and this applies to Mr. Bush’s dream of a guest-worker program as much as the current mess. The Irish invasion of New York and other east coast cities a decade or so ago didn’t stem from Patrick and Michael sneaking through the Sonoran Desert at midnight. Even for Mexican immigrants, the GAO estimates about half merely overstayed their visas rather than paid a coyote to lead them to the promised land.

In any case, the real solution to the illegal immigration problem is not supply but demand. It is fascinating that a government prepared to fight a war on illegal drugs will go after the users, but in a battle against illegal immigration has no interest at all in punishing those who profit from exploiting these individuals – they couldn’t be exploited if they were present legally. Halting illegal immigration is merely a matter of throwing employers in jail (don’t fine them). Of course when the discussion gets to this stage, the suburban families with their nanny, housekeeper or gardener (which they didn’t have growing up middle class) lose all interest in the issue, and so it will persist.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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