Why advocates for illegal aliens are opposed to a border fence.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT BORDER FENCES
Q. Can fences along the border impede the flow of hordes of aliens who cross the border illegally daily?
A. Yes. Many successful fences to keep aliens and other types of intruders out have been built. In San Diego, the 14 mile border fence led to a 56 percent decrease in crime from 1989 to 2000.
Israel’s border fence has been extraordinarily successful in keeping out potential infiltrators who are far more determined to cross the border than mere immigrants.
Even Saudi Arabia, one of the most vocal critics of Israel's "security fence" in the West Bank, is quietly emulating the Israeli example by erecting a barrier along its porous border with Yemen to prevent terrorists from entering.
Q. Many (opponents) argue that border crossers will simply go to where there is no fence.
A. That's not an argument against a fence -- it's an argument for a fence across both of the ENTIRE borders (Canada and Mexico).
Q. Can a fence be put across all terrain such as mountains and rivers?
A. No. There are some lengths across both borders where a fence is impractical to install. In some cases, a fence would act as a dam by trapping plants and brush when heavy rain waters or melting snow flows. But those unfenced lengths of rough terrain are natural barriers that aliens would not easily cross. Moreover, those impassable areas are more easily monitored by the border patrol with hi tech unmanned lookout posts.
Q. Why do opponents of border fences compare it to the Berlin wall?
A. Such a comparison is even an insult to the intelligence of dummies. When you build a wall to keep people in, that’s a prison. When you build a fence to keep people out, that’s securing your sovereignty. Would you compare a fence around your house to control who comes into your yard to the Berlin wall? Moreover, proposals by congress are for building of a "fence," not a "wall."
Q. What's the difference between a fence and a wall?
A. A wall is a thick solid structure through which you cannot see. A fence is a thin structure that you can see through to the other side.
Q. Wait a minute. Isn't the section of border fence which separates Naco, Mexico from Naco, Arizona one that you cannot see through?
A. Yes. And there are many more border fences just like the Naco fence. Sometimes the government does stupid things like building fences through which the Border Patrol cannot see. Illegal crossers poke holes in the fence to watch for border patrol officers. When the coast is clear, they simply climb to the top on the Mexican side with ladders and let themselves down on the U.S. side with a rope. Successful border fences must be able to be seen through.
Speaking of government doing stupid things, the section of border fence which separates Douglas Arizona from Agua Prieta has the iron bar tips pointing away from Mexico. According to Rick Oltman of FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), when he asked a staffer at Arizona Senator John McCain's office why the tips were pointing towards the U.S., he was told that they didn't want to offend Mexico.
Q. Why not save all that money to build a physical fence by instead, building a "virtual" fence?
A. There is no such thing as a virtual fence? A physical fence physically impedes aliens from crossing. A so called virtual fence does not. What is referred to as a virtual fence, is an invisible array of sensors along the border. When a sensor is triggered, a display appears at the Border Patrol station which tells the station officers when and where aliens are crossing. But effective physical fences also use detection apparatus.
Q. So what's wrong with a virtual fence?
A. The problem at the border is not the inability to electronically detect intruders -- the problem is getting to them and arresting them once they are detected.
Large numbers of up to one hundred aliens can quickly cross an invisible virtual fence (the crossing of such groups are known as Bonzai charges). Intruders crossing a virtual fence are not aware that they have been detected and keep moving on at a rate of about two miles per hour. By the time the border patrol gets to the point of detection, the crossers aren't there. Thus, the arriving border patrol officers must radio for helicopter help to search the area. At the same time other border patrol resources are dispatched to other paths that the crossers MIGHT use. The border patrol is usually successful in apprehending some of the group, but are too overwhelmed to apprehend all those in a large group. Smugglers know how the border patrol works, so while all border patrol resources in the area are being used going after just one group, other groups cross unnoticed.
With a physical fence, a large group is easily detected just as with a virtual fence, but it takes time to climb a fence. Thus, the border patrol can get to the fence in time to intercept the crossers.
Q. Why bother with a physical fence that apparently is easy to get over using a ladder and rope?
A. Using a ladder and rope to get over a fence is not easy if the fence is a double layered fence as the 854 mile fence is supposed to be. With a double layered fence, a crosser would have to lift the ladder up with him to the top of the fence, drop it to the area between the layers, drop down with a rope, then repeat the process to climb the second layer and would have to leave the ladder behind. To use the ladder and rope method to hurdle a double fence, a second ladder would have to be leaned against the second layer for others in the group to use. A large group trying to hurdle a two layer fence one at a time, gives the border patrol officers plenty of time to intercept all or most crossers.
Q. Why do some people insist that a fence alone won't fix the problem?
A. They are right that a fence alone won't fix the (entire) problem. But that doesn't mean that if you can't fix the entire problem all at once, that you shouldn't fix part of the problem to begin with. Wouldn't you expect a doctor to first stop the hemorrhaging from an opening in a patient's body before fixing the cause of the hemorrhaging?
Q. Won't a border fence offend Hispanics?
A. There should be no American offended by a fence to secure our country. American Hispanics are AMERICANS.
Q. Shouldn't our government work together with the Mexican government to more harmoniously construct a fence?
A. As American citizens, we influence our elected leaders to reflect political policies in our national interest. As American citizens, we can't influence by vote, Mexican foreign policy. Mexican politicos do not make policy in the interest of the U.S.
Q. With the facts presented in this Q. and A., Why would anyone be opposed to a border fence?
A. Let's be honest. The majority of those opposed to a border fence, really don't want it because they want the border open to illegals.
Hal Netkin's keen awareness of the fence solution results from analytical analysis based on observation of actual crossings by illegal aliens, viewed from Watchdog America's satellite office located in Arizona right on the U.S. side of the Mexican border.
Updated September 12, 2007
By Hal Netkin
In 2006, a border fence 854 miles long to be completed by May of 2008, was approved by congress and signed into law by president Bush. At this writing (September 2007), only eighteen miles have been completed. It is apparent that the Bush administration's intention is to rescind the fence. Those opposed to the fence make every excuse not to build it, chief among them, that it won't work. Some even claim it will make matters worse. So let's examine the fact
