In the past few years there has been much discussion as to the US closing and securing its border with Mexico to prevent illegal immigration.
Governor Rick Perry of Texas today in a town hall meeting in Conway, South Carolina. Talked of closing the border with National Guard and a partial fence. But such talk is cheap. Is the dream of a totally closed border really viable or is it merely a political ploy to feed people with the dream of total security?
I do not believe that a totally secure border is a viable proposition.
Why?
First no nation or group of nations has ever achieved a totally secure border. Even the land of my birth the United Kingom, an island twenty something miles off the coast of North-West Europe has an illegal immigrant problem. If illegal immigrants in their thousands, with the aid of criminal traffikers can get onto an island nation, past intensive Customs and Immigration security and then live among the people easily, what hope has the US in securing a thousand mile plus land border from Brownsville, TX to San Diego CA? In order to even get to the UK illegal immigrants must cross at least France in order to reach the Channel Coast. Illegals from Mexico only have to walk up to a mostly open border.
If people can wander into North Korea, by accident. One of the most secure nations in the world. Then claiming the US can have a 100% Secure Border is laughable. Do people really want to go to North Korea? We know people want to come to the United States.
You could build a wall.
But building a wall costs money. Americans hate their government spending money. So should the individual border States be responsible for the border?
Well Constitutionally they are not responsible, the Federal Government is. But we all know the Federal Government is only happy to spend lots of money. They recently spent Billions of Dollars on a trial fence which failed to meet requirements and went way over budget after only a few miles along the California-Mexico border.
During the Cold War, Europe was divided by a long barbed wire border between the Democratic West amd the Soviet controlled Central and Eatern Europe. Did that stop illegal immigration? Barbed wire, minefields, machine gun towers and armed border guards with dogs walking the border failed to prevent many crossings in either direction.
A determined person will risk everything to achieve a desired goal.
They can go around the Wall.
France in the 1930’s built the Maginot Line of defensive forts along its border with Germany, to prevent invasion. The forts however did not go all the way to the coast and in 1940 the German army went around and over the Maginot Line.
Remember here we are not even talking of an army, we are talking of groups of individuals crossing a border which is only partially land based. If they cannot go over or under the fence or wall, can we stop them going around?
We would need to secure the US coastline from immigration by boat. Traffikers and illegal immigrants are not stupid, Walls and locked doors only prevent honest people gaining entry. The criminal will always find a way around to your weak spot.
These problems don’t include the problem of those who enter the US via other channels. Many illegal immigrants come into the country via airports, with visas and under the visa waiver system. They then remain past the time of their visa expiration and disappear from the radar as far as US Immigration officers are concerned.
I believe we should work on securing the border and also intensify investigation as to the legality of individuals in the US. We cannot expect one solution to keep illegal immigration under control. It means that people need to consider their own values, do you want security at any price? Or are you willing to allow some illegal immigration in order to not pay for it in terms of either security or higher taxes and prices.