SHOULD THE UNITED STATES BUILD A SECURITY FENCE ON ITS BORDER WITH MEXICO?

SHOULD THE UNITED STATES BUILD
A SECURITY FENCE ON ITS BORDER WITH MEXICO?

Keith N. Haley

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How many ways can we say, “Yes?” Let’s start with the fact that currently there are about 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, the vast majority of them entered the United States illegally across our border with Mexico. They cross the border illegally, day and night, in packs of anywhere from 3 to 100 at a time.

Moreover there are about 300,000 anchor babies born in the United States each year, costing the United States taxpayers millions of dollars in hospital costs for maternity services and follow-up medical care. The baby, of course, is automatically a United States citizen since it was born on U.S. soil even though the mother is here illegally. Tens of thousands of mothers planned this excursion for just this reason, that their child becomes a citizen and that they will be permitted to stay in the United States. Multiply that number, however, by two or three because one or more parents of the mother and father of the baby end up in the United States also. Mexican illegal immigrants have turned this anchor baby stunt into a well thought out ploy to gain legal resident status in the U.S.

Crime is rampant among the illegal immigrant population and many of the illegal Mexican immigrants are flat-out hardened criminals who plunder and assault US citizens and their property. In southern Arizona, for example, about 75% of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports Index Offenses are committed by illegal immigrants from Mexico or some other Central or South American nation. These crimes are murder, robbery, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In addition, in many other cities and states in the U.S. illegal immigrants are well immersed in the criminal population. It’s reported that in Los Angeles that approximately 75% of the active murder warrants are for illegal Mexican immigrants.

Blue-collar jobs are taken by illegal immigrants all over the United States. Employers hire them for half or less of what they would be required to pay if they were hiring US citizens. These jobs range from picking produce to a variety of positions in the construction, manufacturing, and food processing. With only 10% of United States jobs remaining in the manufacturing sector, and all of these and other jobs being taken by illegal immigrants, what is an unskilled American worker to do? A decade or more ago they could have taken one of these blue-collar positions, supported a family, and in the next generation moved up to the middle class. An unskilled worker no longer has much of a chance to earn a livable wage with illegal immigrants claiming so many of these jobs. In the meantime, profits for the employers of illegal immigrants have soared as these entrepreneurs continue to violate United States law.

How many times have you heard that security fences don’t work or that “fences don’t make good neighbors?” Fences do work in protecting borders. Israel’s new security fence along the border with Arab areas in the West Bank has dramatically reduced terrorist intrusions since its construction. Even in Southern California where the new San Diego security fence was constructed on the border to restrain the swarm of illegal immigrants from Mexico, the number of intruders who now successfully enter there illegally has dropped dramatically. Just recently Saudi Arabia has decided to build a 550 mile security fence on its northern border with Iraq. Think the Saudis know something we don’t?

But wait a minute, President Vicente Fox of Mexico said that it is “shameful” to build a fence in order to separate good neighbors. Good neighbors? Do good neighbors export criminal gangs and caches of narcotics to the home of its good neighbor? Do good neighbors make almost no effort to protect the border with its neighbor? There is more than a slim chance that President Fox understands the economics of the illegal immigrant situation. The money that illegal immigrants send back to Mexico each year totals about $20 billion, a source of income for Mexico that is second only to its own oil production. We should take President Fox’s condemnation of the security fence on the southwest border as a point on the plus side for building a fence.

The subject of culture is a complicated one but suffice it to say millions who came across the border illegally today do not have any interest in assimilating into American culture or even speaking English. But they have no qualms about sucking dry our social, medical, and welfare services. The cost of these services for illegal immigrants runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. We have even had hospitals close because they can no longer afford the mandated treatment of illegal immigrants.

We already have more illegal immigrants in the United States today than all the Italians, Germans, Poles, English, and Irish that immigrated to the United States legally over the course of our nation’s history. It took a generation or two for them to assimilate into the culture and they did that by learning the language, getting a good education, and working their way up the employment and social ladder, and we are all the better for it. Even more impressive are the accomplishments of African-Americans, coming from a history of slavery and discrimination to positions of prominence, security, and leadership. Many of the jobs that would continue to allow the gateway for opportunity in the U.S. among the working class are now filled by illegal immigrants working at woefully low salaries.

Finally, in September of 2006, prior to the midterm elections the United States Congress decided to pass legislation to fund the border security fence. The price tag is $1.2 billion. The fence will stretch across 700 miles along the United States - Mexican border. While a strong majority of Americans of all political persuasions, races, and ethnicities support the building of a fence, Congress had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the floor in order to pass this legislation. Many of them wanted comprehensive immigration reform, a code term for maintaining a legislative stall until they figure out the politics of immigration reform. Both of the major political parties seek the Hispanic vote and they believe that no action in 2006 was the best way to get. It is not. A majority of the Hispanic voters in the United States support the idea of building a border security fence as step one in immigration reform.

The approved fence will be an elaborate installation with high-tech surveillance cameras supported by flying surveillance drones. The money for the fence and the surveillance system is now allocated, but we will have to wait and see if ground is actually broken after the fall elections. For the sake of maintaining a common American culture and continuing to make good on our promise of a better future for all, we hope the fence is real.