New Wall Not Expected to Stop Migrants

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-sa/2006/oct/07/100704775.html

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -

Rising from the Pacific surf and zig-zagging along the border for 14 miles, Tijuana's border fence has done little but push illegal migrants into the Arizona desert and feed the smuggling industry since it went up in 1994.

Today, as the U.S. prepares to build a high-tech barrier with 700 miles of extra fencing, motion detectors and remote controlled devices, smugglers are already figuring out how to beat the new security.

Even before President Bush signed the $1.2 billion funding bill Wednesday to strengthen busy crossing points, border patrol figures indicated that smugglers have been hiding more migrants in vehicles, or diverting them across one of the most inhospitable sections of the border - a mountainous stretch of searing desert near Yuma, Ariz.

Some experts predict smugglers could turn to boats and tunnels, two methods popular with drug smugglers but seldom used by migrant traffickers.

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[SoCalDem]

1. 700 mile (stop and go) fence along a 2000 mile border?

Hmmm. I wonder why it won't stop 'em ::silly:

[pitohui]

9. it's a job program

and if we're honest there are a lot of people around this time of century who don't have jobs

i have seen people come across the rio grande myself, with my own eyes, just using a small boat in south texas

we certainly need to protect and secure our borders but this may be more a dog and pony show than anything real -- and honestly are you really surprised?

no republican truly wants a secure border, this is why reagan/bush always reward the illegal immigrant with amnesty, they're all about the cheap labor

[LostInAnomie]

Well, that and the fact that after passing the bill to fund construction..

... they immediately passed a bill insuring that the construction wouldn't happen.

They were never serious about a wall. They just wanted to say that they did something this session.

[Vidar]

11. By georgie, I think you have it.

[xchrom]

2. yeah -- well it makes freestupidville feel better.

[ooga booga]

3. once again -- Grossman's Misquote of H.L. Mencken says

"Complex problems always have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers."

A few weeks ago, I read an editorial by a Hispanic guy with US citizenship who'd worked in Mexico. He said that when you're a foreigner on a work visa in Mexico you have to present the visa and prove your status to do just about anything -- rent an apartment, get a job, whatever. This is MEXICO, folks. You'd have a harder time being an illegal THERE than you would HERE.

Now, I don't know if that would work successfully here, but it makes a lot more sense to me than building a stupid wall. Make it so that you can't DO anything once you're here. The word will get back down South pretty fast.

Of course, the dirty little fact that gets glossed over in most immigration discussions is that employers LIKE having low-wage workers who can't and won't complain about bad conditions. Somehow, we've got to work out something for the 12 million already here, have a way to require legal status, and then give everyone protection, decent working conditions and some dignity.

We need a complex answer to this complex problem -- not something tangible, but ineffective like that fence.

[pitohui]

10. yeah i've pointed this out before

tons of us would have already left for mexico frankly if it were that easy

[Infinite Hope]

4. A realization I came to today...

...is that the wall will also enable the drug trade. They already have tunnels under the border that run as much as 40 miles in length (perhaps more). Mexicans who wish to pass where the wall stands will simply pass through the tunnels after paying a toll to the cartels.

[shanti]

5. more money

funneled into the pockets of the chimp's friends. that's all this is :grr:

[patrick t. cakes]

6. maybe with the passing

of these bills the "minute men"
will be happy and finally go away, and take sean hannity with 'um.

i doubt it.

[Dover]

7. Won't work in Israel either. Walls don't work. A better question might

be: Who gets the contracts? Sounds like a boondoggle to me. They "created" this crisis, fueled it with a lot of hype and media, and now will be spending lots of money with no results.
They just like to hand out contracts...in Iraq, New Orleans, and now the border. So who is getting all the contracts to create some hyped up need for security? Also what political constituency does this crisis cater to?

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. Hey, they already owe a trazillion $$ to China, why not buy THEIR wall ??

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Then is would be the "Great Wall of the USA"!

Build one on OUR border too while your at it, eh?

We wanna keep them PNAC maniacs outta here!

Ain't no Canuks racing to join the the most hated country in the world . .