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Printer-Friendly ModeProposed wall fails to seal border, wastes resources
April 10, 2006 —
Illegal immigration has become a huge problem for the United States. The Senate is currently trying to make illegally entering the country a felony, in hopes of controlling the occurrence. This may help a bit, but only under some circumstances. Sure, it will punish those with expired visas, or illegal papers, but it won't prevent people from continuing to sneak across the border. If the Senate passes a proposal this month, there very well may be a wall separating the United States from Mexico ... literally. In December, it passed through the House and now is up to the 100 senators to decide. It is planned that this wall will help to control illegal immigration into the United States.
Currently, there are miles of 15-foot high fencing that run along parts of the U.S./Mexico border. Other parts of the border are only protected by wooden stakes connected by barbed wire. This lack of fencing doesn't do its job, as we all know, and now we are forced to build a more permanent structure.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, this structure will be a 700-mile long, double steel wall complete with surveillance cameras, floodlights and motion detectors. It sounds like they're trying to build the set to the next Mission: Impossible movie.
No, it's not what you think. It won't be one continuous wall along the entire 1,952-mile border. The wall will be made into five segments, covering the five areas along the border where most illegal activity occurs. If the wall covers only high-risk areas, it seems that it would only force people that are trying to illegally enter the country to find a different spot to take the plunge across the border.
A wall with huge gaps certainly won't serve its purpose. It's like relying on a fishing net to capture a fruit fly; it's just not going to help significantly. Most newspapers seem to agree; they are calling this project a "boondoggle." In other words, they also think it will be useless. Unless they make this wall higher and in one piece, it's not going to change things much.
Not only will this wall keep illegal aliens out of the country, but it will also prevent wildlife from moving about their habitat. Every day animals run freely across the border; we want to keep the people out, not the animals. Maybe these animals will have to pass through border security before crossing over to their favorite grazing area.
Keeping people from sneaking into the United States isn't the only reason for this "Great Wall of Mexico." Authorities believe that it will also help protect our country from the invasion of terrorists. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the last attack on our country was from the sky; how is an oversized steel impediment going to help? We might as well just add a roof over the United States, too. At least that way, airplanes diving towards our most admired landmarks will be stopped mid-air. From space, the U.S. may look like a giant greenhouse, but at least we'd be safe and free of illegal activity.
This project is estimated to cost over $2.2 billion to complete. That's a huge chunk of change, not to mention the access roads that will need to be built and the upkeep. Natural erosion will be a problem as the wall will shift with the Earth, causing a need for constant repair.
The government will also have to hire extra security. People will have to be on hand to monitor the security cameras, and to travel the many miles of access roads to keep an eye on things. Some are worried that security personnel won't be the only ones using these access roads. The roads will give smugglers a perfect opportunity to travel easier along the border, which is another proposed problem of this wall. Talk about hand feeding smugglers the opportunity to continue their illegal activity.
This wall just doesn't seem like a good way to spend our money, and it certainly won't permanently fix our problem of illegal immigration. If we really want to fix this, the government needs to put on their thinking caps and come up with a new, more realistic plan.