* Your opinion on this? http://www.minutemanhq.com/bf/ (PHOENIX, AZ) April 20, 2006 – Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDCâ€), today announced plans by the MCDC to work with local Arizona land owners to build border security fencing on private land along the border with Mexico. At present, six private land owners have partnered with the Minutemen for the commencement of construction of border fencing on their land. Surveillance cameras on the fencing will be monitored via computer by registered Minutemen across the country. We have chosen a fence design that is based on the Israeli fences in Gaza and on the West Bank that have cut terrorist attacks there by 95% or more. In order to be effective, a fence should not be easy to compromise by climbing over it with a ladder, cutting through it with wire cutters, ramming it with a vehicle, or tunneling under it undetected. No fence can be a 100% impenetrable barrier—but a good design will be time-consuming enough to get through that Border Patrol agents can be alerted to get to a point of attempted intrusion before the intrusion can be completed. Our design does this. You can see it at www.WeNeedAFence.com Simcox says those involved in the planning hope to keep costs near $150 per foot. Click here to donate Directly to Minuteman Border Fence http://www.MinutemanBorderFence.com Two construction companies to date have offered to inaugurate groundbreaking, coordinate volunteer construction crews and donate the use of the necessary heavy construction equipment. The groundbreaking will begin in Arizona on Memorial Day weekend, unless in the interim President Bush deploys National Guard and reserve troops to immediately secure the out-of-control southern border. The fencing will be built with privately donated funds, engineering and labor and will be used as an example to educate the public about the feasibility and efficacy of fencing to secure America’s borders from illegal incursion by aliens and international criminal cartels. A non-profit organization dedicated specifically to this purpose will facilitate and administer donations for construction of the fence. Monetary and in-kind contributions for this effort will go directly into building materials for this private, volunteer fencing project. Simcox issued the following statement on the MCDC border fence project: “President Bush once said he would not wait on events to act to protect our country. He has been president for over five years, and still he has not acted to secure our territorial frontier, even as his administration admits the United States government does not have operational control of our borders. “On Memorial Day weekend, the American people will exercise their God-given rights to protect their lives and property by initiating construction of fencing along the border on private land unless President Bush immediately deploys National Guard and/or reserve troops along the breadth of the Southwestern border line with Mexico, thereby retaking the region from the international criminal cartels who presently are in operational control of the border. Additional support is available from military units presently training to guard the borders in other countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan and they should immediately relocate their training to the Southwestern border. “The existing border crisis is a dereliction of duty by those entrusted with American security and sovereignty, leaving America vulnerable to terrorist infiltration and an unprecedented crime wave caused by drug smugglers, rapists, thieves, human traffickers and murderers who currently cross our border at will. “President Bush and Congress have taxed the wages of the American people to pay for the protection of our country, and expended those dollars to subsidize millions of low-wage illegal workers with housing, education, medical care, and welfare benefits. Yet even the most basic level of national territorial integrity requires that our elected representatives secure the border. Should they continue to refuse to do their Constitutional duty, the Minutemen will again step into the breach and commence building the required border barriers on private land and with private donations. “Should President Bush and Congress fail to fulfill their oaths of office, and meet their Constitutional obligation to protect these United States from invasion, we, the sovereign people of the United States, having suffered a long train of abuses at the hand of a willfully insolent government, do hereby declare that these States ought, should and will be protected by American Minutemen.†Sincerely,
To protect their property, especially when the government will not do so. Now if all landowners would do this, it would leave very few places for illegals to cross into the USA. But am sure some ACLU or some hispanic org will start slinging lawsuits, etc. Such a shame when our country allows illegals to get protection from our laws after breaking a few....weird as hell.
I especially like all those stories of Mexican illegals suing the U.S. Government when one of their relatives die trying to cross the border because they either couldn't swim or didn't bring enough water with them if they tried the desert. Screwy, man.
300 miles of private land is their initial goal, and supposedly they want to do it the whole way if they can find a means...there's a lot of state and federal land on the border--for some reason!? I believe they received twenty thousand from one donor on the first day, and from what I heard they have an abundance of voluntaries...and the money continues to flow in. So it's going to be fairly impressive if it really runs through. Honestly, if you run something like this all the way across the border, it would probably decrease the percentages dramatically. Israel's fence is virtually impossble to pass through, and the people that want to pass through it believe god wants them to be blown up, so the intiative is fairly similiar.
Gee, because that fencing is so impenetrable, I mean it's not like anyone with tin-snips couldn't just cut through. And we all know these people coming across aren't determined or resourceful at all... Doesn't it just seem a little bit silly that we keep trying to address the side-effects but not the actual disease here? If American employers obeyed the laws and stopped providing opportunities of prosperity; now that would really reduce the number of border crossings and wouldn't be a short-term band-aid like the fence idea. And while we keep throwing the term "illegals" around, let's remember that American employers who provide them jobs are breaking the law too, start putting some of them behind bars and see how fast the opportunities for border crossers dry up. If there was just half as much public and law enforcement pressure on the companies and individuals who illegally hire undocumented aliens this problem wouldn't exist. It's like we'll treat the swelling but ignore the tumor.
The design of the fence makes it extremely hard to either cut or climb. The gaps are small. Remember this is the same fence that Israel has on it's border, with people whom think it's their destiny to be blown up, and 'kill the infidels.' With general survelliance cameras and sensors, and a fence that would take a long time to damage...well, you definitely have a reduction rate in that area. Every plan has to be multi-facetted. The fence would be effective. San Diego's fence is only one layer, and the percentage flooding that area are next to nothing. It works, but it's not all the way across. I don't buy the tunnel theory, because the majority of those tunnels are drug runners, not illegals. The capability of doing such involve a lot of money, time, and talent. The supreme court will be hearing many cases on immigration soon. "In legal cases with potential repercussions for businesses and employees, current and former workers are accusing U.S. companies of violating immigration law and driving down wages. The federal lawsuits — against carpet maker Mohawk Industries, Tyson Foods, retailer Wal-Mart, and others — are winding their way through appeals courts." The problem with illegal immigration is our federal level refuses to do their job and enforce our given laws. It's a joke how many companies we've enforced our laws on.
How typical. Just becuase it's hard we should just not do it at all. That's the kind of defeatist attitude that has people calling for us to pull out of Iraq "coz it's just too hard, Gosh darn it, so let's just quit and leave!" If all our founding fathers thought as you did, we'd be France 2.0. instead of America.
LOL. Edited for correction: Human smuggling eclipses drugs trade Human trafficking has replaced the drugs trade as the world's largest illegal business, security experts have warned.
I'm not even against the fence idea. If its on private property and my taxes aren't paying for it - go for it! In fact I think anyone who lives on the border should be armed to the teeth because they aren't very safe. I'm just saying... the tunnels are very profitable. Human smuggling is very profitable. And fences aren't going to stop organized crime that brings in billions of dollars a year. http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special03/articles/0817immigrant-bajadores17.html
You can't stop the tunnel problem until you've stopped the above ground problem. Even if you stem the above ground problem a bit, you can allocate more resources to the tunnel problem. It's not a perfect plan, but it's progress.
I agree. It's a tiny step that isn't going to solve even a fraction of the problem, but it is moving forward. Got to give them props for their determination
Yes, a thousand a head...okay. Now, let's compare that to one kilogram of cocaine. $12k-35K. Now the average person weighs 60 kilograms...60x12k. 720k. LMAO. Almost every tunnel they find has a cart specifically made to transfer drugs. Now, if I'm a drug smuggler, and I have the means of making cash by being the center area which imports drugs or people...would I transfer people, (whom would have to come by the boat-loads to my house to compensate what I can make for in drugs) or drugs? 1K or 720k?....hmmmm I assume it happens regardless, but my point is most drug smugglers don't want anyone to know $hit about their operation, and it would be stupid for them to get into the business of smuggling people underground...when any bum can do that on the surface. Till immigration is stifled up above, the business of smuggling people underground is little in comparison. It will come to a point were people will not be able to afford the payment/risks of smuggling. The average 800-yard tunnel takes four months to dig. Previous to 9/11, we only found 15 tunnels under the border; in the last five years we've discovered 21. US authorities claim all of them were for drugs, and they think none were used for terrorism.
And of coarse it is...most everywhere in the world is fenced off, because they realize the implications of not being. Israel learned it the hard way. If you want to take a look at a country that can't and will never be able to control it's borders, take a look at Brazil. It's one of the few economy in south america that's progressing, but due to it's impossibly open borders...they have a huge poverty and crime rate. Their murder rate is the biggest in the world, I believe. The helicopter industry there's so huge, because big exec would get taken for ransom if they drive through the poor areas. Little girls are protituted, and even killed for cash. Lots of that stuff is in Mexico as well. Hell, two government officials got their head cut off recently. I don't know about you, but just the thought of living in something like that makes me shutter. We do have the chance of securing our borders to a relative level. We should do it, and deal with the problems one at a time.
Yet it's easy for [whoever on DP said it] to say mexicans should stay in mexico and make it better. Like a bunch of poor starving people can make a difference against an army of billionare drug cartels and organized crime
Do people send immigrants thru the tunnels? I thought they often killed the people who dug the tunnels so no one could tell anyone where they were.
ferret - to be honest, security is so non-existant, they don't need tunnels to smuggle people. They just fill them into the back of a big white van and drive through the desert. The point is, if we put up fences and make it harder - they just charge more and get more advanced, like digging more tunnels, that will smuggle people.
Most of their problems stem from Pemex, which is their nationalized oil industry. Every since they nationalized the oil, the people whom controlled that oil, controlled the country. Any reasonable change has been fought by the constitutent representing the interests of Pemex. Often the people involved are those whom are in the unions that resolve not to privatize the industry. The drugs are definitely part of it, but the country and people have to realize that their economy is just not welcoming of industry...and since they seem to be socialist-leaning country, they'll continuely fail to attract outside investment. No one wants to put their money into a country that might nationalize private business or is completely corrupt. So a Revolution in culture would definitely be a start....but that doesn't even happen here, thus a policy of steady immigration with hopes their children will come to moderate views of the economy and system.