This is the number one topic in my neck of the woods (So. Az), and this is a pretty compelling article from the local rag.

Tucson Weekly : Currents : Let's Climb the Wall

In essence, the vaunted border fence is more about the appearance of doing something, while not anywhere near adequate to doing what it's supposed to.

Some highlights:

• "The government isn't controlling the border," Ladd says. "It's controlling what Americans think about the border."
• If you ask most Americans about it, they'll say its intent is to stop people from crossing the border. It isn't. Even Border Patrol admits it only slows them down.
• If you ask whether the government is building it, they'll say, of course, I saw it on TV. But the majority of what's going in isn't the double-layer pedestrian fence the Secure Fence Act required.
• There's a great disconnect between those living on the line and Americans in the heartland. The latter demand the fence because, rightly and overwhelmingly, they want something done to protect our sovereignty, our land and our citizens.
• A fence has an almost unassailable logic to it, an intuitive power. If you live in, say, rural Connecticut, and want to keep the deer out of your backyard, build a fence. It works. So why not a fence on the border? But the international line is a separate reality entirely, and those pro-fence voices, from Connecticut to Oregon, are mostly people who've never seen the border--never ridden horseback over the hills of Arivaca, never walked the smuggling trails in the grasslands of the San Rafael Valley. Here's a truism: The farther you live from the line, the more likely you are to believe the pedestrian fence will work.
• Thrasher is a veterinarian who spends a lot of time at properties on the border, and he says what's needed is pretty basic: an east-west road along the line for patrols and rapid access; rail-on-post vehicle barriers to prevent smugglers from driving into the country; and a livestock fence to keep Mexican and American cattle herds from mingling, which has potentially disastrous economic and national security consequences. It's simple, cheap and doable, and it doesn't destroy the historic dynamic between American border residents and their Mexican neighbors the way a big wall does.
• (the) Southwest border is now blocked by 183 miles of pedestrian fencing and 128 miles of vehicle barriers--on a 1,950-mile border. Most important: The DHS has only built 95 miles of new pedestrian fencing since passage of the Secure Fence Act in 2006, almost half of that in Yuma.
• Enforcement advocates point to the San Diego fence, saying it has been a rousing success in cutting crossings from Tijuana, and resulting crime in San Diego. But as The Washington Post reported, it took $39 million to build the first 9 miles. After invoking their authority to override environmental concerns, the DHS got an additional $35 million to finish the remaining 3.5 miles. Total cost? $74 million--more than $5 million a mile. And what did the San Diego fence do? It moved the illegals over to Arizona. Is that the definition of "working"?

It's a pretty thorough article, and I think a pretty convincing one. What are your thoughts? Is it true that people who don't live here really think that what we have is working?

This is why I am so dismissive of the "Terrorist Threat". That's absolutely nothing, compared to what's going on down here.

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What this and almost every single source that advocates some form of 'fence' or other barrier leaves out of the discussion, among other things, are the 14 sister cities which sit right on the border. From San Diego/Tijuana all the way to Brownsville/Matamoros there is a huge amount of urban development RIGHT ON the border which is dependent for its economic livlihood on the interactions of people on BOTH sides of the border. Building that fence is going to destroy or at least severely impact the economies of all ten states in the border region (US and Mexico).

I'm not suggesting that we should have 'open' borders, but I still wait, patiently, for someone, anyone to come up with a reasonable solution to the TOTALITY of this issue.

One thing this article reports spot on is the fact that those who live far from the border have no real idea what they're talking about when it comes to issues of immigration or other border region issues, but it too misses the mark. As do so many.

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"Yes. That's correct. Making a statement that's 100% true can't be bigoted."

I didn't get the sense that this article was exactly advocating for a fence.

Absolutely. The issues are so complex that a simple fence or "kill em all" mentality isn't addressing economics, cultural factors, etc.

I am all over the place on this issue, and every side of it has very valid points. I, too, await some real, creative attention on this issue.

It may have missed, but it's a lot closer than what seems to come out of Washington. It's rare any Senator bothers to actually come out here and spends a week, talking and listening. They obviously don't have a clue what's really happening.

Honestly, it's a hair away from becoming a sniper zone, people are so frustrated and angry.

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Well, we need to realize that the current fed gov is the most corrupt in US history, from the WH on down. Everything is for sale, lobbying is the biggest business in Washington, with the scumbag employers of illegals controlling this issue. El presidente jorge's handlers won't let him build anything except a joke of a fence. There won't be a double layered fence with a 2 lane highway down the middle for the border patrol, because that would actually work. We'll continue to see betrayal after betrayal from jorge until his time finally expires, more dog and pony shows, and 10,000 illegals a day, every day, day after day will continue to break in to provide the so called cheap subsidized labor for the employers of illegals.

The only hope to stop the illegal Mexican scab invasion are the employers of illegals sanction laws being passed at the states level. Universal mandatory e-verification of the legal status of an employee would stop the employers of illegals from hiring illegal Mexican scabs and would stop the illegal Mexican invasion cold.

Nationally, although el presidente jorge betrays US citizens daily, it is actually the Democratic politicians who don't want the SAVE Act, which has the universal mandatory e-verification provision, to even come out on the House floor for voting.

Not that the Democratic rank and file give a rat's *** about what their Democratic politicians do when it comes to illegal immigration, but it's obvious that the Republican politicians are the ones fighting illegal immigration while the Democratic politicians are fighting the Republican politicians fighting illegal immigration.

Sker - you in Tucson? I live there, but my husband is from Douglas. Agua Prietta 30 years ago was a lovely small town - now it's trashed.

I agree about the fence - most people who don't live near the border don't realize how impostant cross border trade is, and how inticate the problem is. Douglas wouldn't exist without cross border trade - neither would a lot of border towns. Even in Tucson there are plenty of mexican plates.

And the fence just pushes people further into the desert so more die.

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It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.
-- Robert Houghwout Jackson,
Chief Judge at the War-Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg

I really enjoy your astute, concise and logical posts.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

Were you here when the Hannigans got busted for taking the law into their own hands?

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It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.
-- Robert Houghwout Jackson,
Chief Judge at the War-Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg

Yup, born and raised (one of the few). So, you know how it was, how it is, and how it's getting. I know a few folks who ranch on the border, and it's rather tense.

I really feel for the folks coming over. Mexico sucks, so, in a way I can't blame them one bit for wanting to seek a better life, and actually risking their lives to do it.

On the other hand.....

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Mexico most certainly does not suck, but for a lot of Mexicans who have had their way of life destroyed by free trade and corrupt politicians, life is pretty close to sucking.

The country is pretty sweet though.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

I don't recall that, but, aside from working a job in Jax in 1997-98, I've been here, throughout.

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There is no sig. There never was a sig. The sig is a lie.