EckerNet.Com

One of the biggest argument I’ve heard against building a wall on the border is that it won’t be effective. Snarky catchphrases such as “show me a 10 foot wall and I’ll show you a 11 foot ladder” or “we build a wall, they dig a tunnel” are fairly common.

I don’t mind those arguments because it demonstrates that they are ignorant of the point. The point isn’t to completely obstruct, it’s to discourage and/or delay. A properly built fence will discourage most people crossing. And it will delay the most determined. Delay them enough to give border control agents enough time to deploy to the area and apprehend the border crosser. For one of the best writeups I’ve read so far on how a fence would accomplish all this, check out Confederate Yankee.

Walls built as he describes are virtually maintenance free. And the portions that are susceptible to vandalism or damage are portions that any invading immigrant is unlikely to even get to before being apprehending.

Perhaps most importantly, the wall acts as a force multiplier. Suddenly a few agents can do what it took many agents to do previously. Since just the sight of it would discourage most, and greatly delay the rest, a few agents are able to enforce a greater portion of the border. Build a fence and suddenly Bush’s idea of proper staffing for Border Control isn’t quite as ridiculous.

The solution STARTS with a wall. Build that, and you are well on your way to slowing the invasion to a manageable trickle. Then we can figure out what to do with the criminals already in our mist. And despite what Bush and many Senate Republicans think, the answer for that doesn’t start with “A” and end with “mnesty”.