Quote:The fence and vehicle barriers are very effective. The double and triple layer of fencing that is located in areas where American city streets are only a short sprint away buy invaluable time for Border Patrol Agents. The fencing is marginally effective in remote areas where there is an hour or more between Border Patrol cuts. If you want better security between the ports, triple Border Patrol manpower from 20,000 to 60,000, build more federal detention facilities in the southwest, and prosecute everyone caught (in every Border Patrol sector). It won't happen though because of $$$.
This is a plan I could get behind.
As to the fence and vehicle barriers being effective, I beg to differ. Just glancing around the web will bring up stories of smugglers cutting through a railroad tie barrier, or using a simple ramp made out of 2x4's to defeat Normandy-style barriers. And the single-layer mat fencing? Let's put it this way: when I lived out in San Diego, I did a lot of hiking. Once in a while, I'd head out to Campo, to the southern end of the Pacific Crest Trail, park the car by the monument and walk the Border Patrol access road. Goes without saying that I had a lot of contact with the Border Patrol when I walked along a road designed solely for them to get from point A to point B quickly (although it was public land and perfectly legal). The fence out that way has LOTS of gaps, some of them a hundred feet or so wide. One of them had a very distinct tire trail in the scrub going right up onto the BP access road. I'm pretty sure the Border Patrol weren't going south into Mexico, given that they have a history of being shot at from the Mexican side, so one can only speculate that that "road" was used by vehicles coming north.
Side note, on one occasion, I decided to get a little ballsy, perhaps ballsier than I should have, and turned left across one of those gaps, then spent about five minutes taking pictures in Mexico before coming back across. There wasn't a Border Patrol truck in sight, no one approached me when I "illegally immigrated" back into America, and I wasn't stopped when driving out of town. Point being, between understaffing along the border and overstaffing at those stupid "interior checkpoints" that do nothing but waste everyone's time, the Border Patrol is stretched too thin, even in high traffic areas like southwestern California. Lots more agents are needed right down along the border itself, especially if American citizens are going to be conned into believing that that shoddy excuse for a "fence" is doing anything other than wasting money that should be going to putting more agents, both highly visible and hidden out of sight, within a couple miles of the border to gain better control of the situation down there.
Then, beyond that, you know, my belief that you should make it easier for guest workers to get permits to live here (and pay taxes), and make life much more difficult for people who are here illegally afterwards.
