Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The old saying that good fences make good neighbors seem to be forgotten by Washington and a certain President from Texas, who undoubtedly fences his grazing land. Fences have two uses - to keep things inside from wandering off, and to keep things outside from coming in.

Any rancher will assure you that they use fences to keep their livestock from wandering off, getting lost, or getting into situations that may lead to losses few ranchers can afford. Farmers use fences to keep certain creatures - including two-legged ones - from getting to their crops and causing damage.

This nation needs a fence. We need to keep out those that don't want to obey our laws, who don't want to listen to reason, and who don't care what damage they do to the nation as long as their personal well-being is taken care of. We need to control who enters this country, and we need to know who those are that are here to stay.

Mexico has huge problems, mostly self-inflicted. They have huge mineral reserves, large tracts of forest land, long coastlines with numerous beaches and high-rise hotels. Yet the average standard of living is worse than many US street people. Poor educational opportunities, little technical training, few job opportunities, multiple roadblocks to entrepreneurship, and a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy make life in Mexico difficult for most of its people. That doesn't give them carte blanche to come to the US, however.

The United States has existing immigration laws - laws that are poorly enforced, with underfunded agencies and poor leadership. There are somewhere between 10 million and 20 million people in the United States unlawfully. They depress wages, cost a bloody fortune for school districts, run up huge medical bills, and are often a major part of crime in our cities and counties. These are problems that need to be solved. None of these problems can be solved, however, until the flow of illegals is curtailed, if not stopped. If your basement is flooding, you don't grab a bucket and bail until AFTER you've shut off the influx of water. The same problem requires that we shut off the flow of illegals across our borders before we can deal with the ones already here.

We need to find a way to stop the flow of illegals NOW. One of the easiest ways to reduce the numbers is by building a difficult to get through fence. I've seen several suggestions, and approve of many of them. Here's my recommendation:

As someone else mentioned, the fence needs to be bordered on the outside by a trench, to prevent vehicles from just ramming through it. Great idea, except that many border areas are not conducive to digging, with rock just below the surface. An even better way to stop vehicles from ramming through the fence is to brace it at four-foot intervals with railroad rails as fenceposts, buried ten feet deep, even in solid rock. Leave another 12 feet above the ground to attach the fence to. Weld cross-members at ground level, and at the four- and 8-foot level above the ground. Attach the fence to the rails in a way that would make it virtually impossible to remove the attachments without losing a finger or two.

Build a second fence fifteen feet from the first, using the same construction methods. Put a graded road 20 feet behind the second fence, with a clear area between the two fences, and between the fences and the road. Patrol the road day and night, using a combination of Border Patrol, Border Security forces on loan from the National Guard or other organizations (more on that later), Predator surveillance drones, and other aircraft. Attack IMMEDIATELY anyone caught between the two fences that shouldn't be there.

Back up the fence with new laws, new rules, and new attitudes.

Re-organize the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security into a single Department of National Security, with multiple branches. The Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force would belong to the Department of External Security (move the VA under the Department of Homeland Security also, and give it the responsibility of providing services to all Department personnel). The Department of Internal Security would include a national militia, a reactivated and updated civil defense corps, and emergency response forces such as the National Guard, FEMA, etc. Other units involved in Internal Security would include the US Coast Guard, Customs, the FBI, and TSA, among others. Create, within the Internal Security arena, a Border Security Corps, modelled on the US Military, that includes Border Patrol elements and armed military personnel whose sole duty is to secure the borders. Give these people the authority to deal with problems in a fast but friendly manner that includes returning illegal border crossers to their home country within 24 hours.

How much would this cost? I have no idea, but it can't be more expensive than the costs of dealing with millions of illegals currently in this country. Once the influx of additional illegals is cut down or cut off, then the nation can expend its energy to go after the ones already here, and deal with them as I've mentioned in a previous article.