Some Cheer Border Fence as Others Ponder the Cost

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

In the debate over immigration among the Republican presidential candidates, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota signed a pledge last week to build double-fencing the entire length of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Herman Cain called for an electrified border fence, 20 feet high with barbed wire.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, claiming superior experience as the leader of the state with 1,200 miles of the border, advocated a more complex strategy, combining fencing and surveillance technology with “a lot of boots on the ground.” Mr. Perry said that building a border-length fence would take “10 to 15 years and $30 billion” and would not be cost-effective.

Proposals for an imposing border fence have drawn cheers at Republican rallies. Border security appears to be an area where some Republican candidates are ready to set aside their priority on fiscal discipline, since security analysts say very little research is available on how much a border-length fence would cost.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/us/politics/border-fence-raises-cost-questions.html

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Funny how the "secure the border" crowd also advocates lower taxes and spending and thus not enough in the budget to build such a fence, not even if illegal immigrants volunteered to build the fence for pennies per hour. Furthermore, they usually ignore the long stretches of unbordered land between the US and Canada, and in fact Derby Line, Vermont stretches into Quebec province, Canada without a fence at all.

[jowsybart]

1. does a majority of the american citizens want it?

why is that not a question being asked?

[raccoon]

2. Cain and Bachman are idiots. I supposed no one asked how would it be paid for? nt