Texans on wrong side of border fence grow anxious
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Max Pons is already anticipating the anxiety he’ll feel when the heavy steel gate shuts behind him, leaving his home isolated on a strip of land between America’s border fence and the violence raging across the Rio Grande in Mexico.
For the past year, the manager of a sprawling preserve on the southern tip of Texas has been comforted by a gap in the rust-colored fence that gave him a quick escape route north in case of emergency. Now the U.S. government is installing the first gates to fill in this part of the fence along the Southwest border, and Pons admits he’s pondering drastic scenarios.
“I think in my head I’m going to feel trapped,” said Pons, who lives on the 1,000-acre property of sabal palms, oxbow lakes and citrus groves he manages for the Nature Conservancy’s Southmost Preserve. “I need to have something that is much easier for me to have to ram to get through” if necessary.
Pons’ concerns illustrate one of the complications in the government’s 5-year-old effort to build a secure barrier along the border that would keep out illegal activity from Mexico without causing worse problems for the people living in the region.
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Texans on wrong side of border fence grow anxious
I have said many times, we must secure the border between the USA and Mexico, but a fence, a wall, a parapet of ANY description, will not secure our border.
If you build a wall 30 feet high, you only inspire ladder builders to make more 32 foot ladders. And in many areas, you don’t need a ladder, you just need youthful exuberance.
That is not a cheap fence either; it’s not one meant only to mark a border, it is, supposedly, a fence made to keep ILLEGALS out of the USA. Apparently, it isn’t getting the job done.
A while back a group called The Minutemen made the news with their efforts to seal the border by providing boots on the ground and by building fencing.
The Minutemen fell apart due to political discourse within their organization, and at about that same time, the fences they built were torn down by ILLEGALS making the crossing into the USA.
A fence might be a good way to corral horses or cows, but it just doesn’t do a lot to deter a human being that has decided to cross that fence. In many cases, a simple barbed wire fence doesn’t do a lot to stop or hold back determined livestock.
What you see in the picture below is what the Minutemen put up; a simple 5 strand barbed wire fence on T-posts, and I am sure the Minutemen were sincere in their efforts, but that nice looking fence was in the dirt as soon as the Minutemen left the area.
If you ever worked cows or horses, you know exactly what I am talking about.
A fence, much like a lock, only keeps an honest person honest. It does little to stop anyone that has decided to break it or by-pass it.
Picture this in your mind; high walls, tall fences, barbed wire, razor wire, video surveillance, guards on duty 24/7/365, armed guards on the walls or in the towers. That is a pretty secure scenario, right? That is the description of a prison and it’s security.
Why then, do we hear about prison breaks from time to time?
There is no way to secure our southern border completely, no security system is going to be 100% effective, but it is a certainty, a border fence will NOT achieve the desired result on it’s own. A fence can be cut, knocked down, climbed over, tunneled under and thus, it becomes an exercise in futility.
There is only one way we can secure our border with Mexico, and even that won’t be 100% secure, but fences, in conjunction with aerial surveillance (drones), manned surveillance and ground sensors, and a manned force large enough to effectively respond to a border that is 1969 miles long is the only hope we have.
Personally, I don’t see ANY American President having the courage to make that happen, but I would support a candidate that made the securing of our border a huge campaign issue.
And I would be the 1st one to hold his feet to the fire if he made that promise and then went back on it.
Well, here we are back to this dang fence issue between the Americans and the mesicans.
These illegals just will not stay in their own country.
So, let’s raise the ante.
I suggest you go look at fencing around a prison, say Seagoville, TX.
There’s one really easy to see and study on the West side of US HWY 175 in Seagoville.
Stacked concertina wire, space in middle MINED!!! Electrified DC current 10′ high wire fence on BOTH outside.
Patrolled daily. This type used in East Germany in the late 40’s,50″s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s.
Used around Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Used extensively at ALL USA prisons, both State and Federal.
The problem that I see is not a fiscal problem, but a politically charged one.
Obama wants the illegal votes, others thinks it is inhumane, breaking up border living families.
Well,,,la-dee-dah!!!!
It is time this political cycle,,, to end this boo-hooing and build this type fence, as soon as Obutthole is defeated at the voting booth.
Send all the welfare cheats down there, like the Job Corps, and get it DONE!!!
And La Raza can kiss my ass!
Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man. If anything made by God can be overcome, anything made by man can be overcome….General George S. Patton.
Drones, A-10’s, Helicopters, and boots on the ground is the only thing right now that will secure the border. Also, throw in a couple AWACS. We already have the people, equipment, and assets to do the job.
Obama is enamored with the word “comprehensive.” We need comprehensive enforcement of illegals to include:
- Deportation for crimes
- Monitoring of businesses
- Voter ID
- Removal of free tuition for colleges, any form of entitlement
- Targeted programs
. . .hand-in-hand with actual ENFORCEMENT of laws on the books.
In concert with making LEGAL entry into the US more streamlined.
BZ
All in All I have to say that BZ has hit on the 7 points that has made the trip by the ILLEGAL alien worth the risk.
First off how many UNITED STATES CITIZENS have been arrested/detained and deported as an illegal immigrant from Mexico or any other country for that fact. None that I am aware of. All of you now why that is, because we have had the best Country in the WORLD, it’s because of our freedoms, freedoms that most countries do not have.
Mexico is the key, and until Mexico improves its economy and rids itself of the MASSIVE CORRUPTION from within its own Government we will be saddled with this problem. I have lived here in South Texas most of my adult life and I have seen all of the issues first hand, up close and personal.
Do I fault all of the people here illegally, no I don’t. However I am a strong proponent of deporting ANYONE here in our country illegally, period.
I have seen the drain on our school districts because the illegals do not pay taxes, some do but must do not. So we are stuck with making up the difference.
Health care; I have seen day in and day out when illegals using the ER as their private doctors, because they have no money, we the taxpayer pickup what’s it paid. If they need surgery they get free surgery and we pay the difference.
I have seen people who work and get paid minimum wage but have no health care, yet they do not qualify for aid, but an illegal alien does qualify.
They is getting Mexico’s economy to a point where their people do not want to leave. That will never ever happen….just to much corruption and a USA President who is making the problem worse. Obama is encouraging people to enter illegally. The only way to slow the migration of illegals into our country is to kick Obama out of Office, and replace him with someone who has the balls to secure our borders and deport as many illegals as possible.
2012 is that time!
You must remember that Mexico is a SOCIALIST STATE!!
Also a corrupt government ruled by how much “mordida” you can pay.
Free Medical and hospital as long as you have your Government Medical card.
Mexicans arrive at their hospitals in droves, fill up the aisles squatting down or even laying down clogging all the halls until their name is called.
It is an “all-day” event !!
Control of Immigration in Mexico is severely controlled for the “extranjero’s”.
That means foreigner’s.
There is a minimum amount of Money you make monthly in the States . If you don’t meet these requirements, YOU don’t get to stay.
It is always checked,as you MUST prove to them you have this money coming in, always!!
You have to have your tourist permit, FMT-3, FMT-2, or your Naturalizado Citizen Tarjeta on your body at all times.
All cost a lot of money to get and re-new. Every government will have their palm ready for mordida. This IS the Mexican Way!!! And rigorously defended today by ALL Government depts,,,large or small. It is God’s way, they say.
The Mexican Govt manages all this rigorously, because it is a “Huge Cash Cow”.
Yes, they investigate and deport. They also arrest and jail.
They do not coddle tourists that want to reside in Mexico.
They control the workplace always looking and finding people working illegally in Mexico.
They take this seriously,as you are taking food and money away from one of their own,,,,an actual true born Mexican.
I have worked with them many times.
Any way they can “farm you as a cash cow,,,they will do it.
They command all touristas to pay to play and reside there,,,,in Mexico.
Many Americans have made a change of livelihood by moving to Mexico, marrying a Mexican Citizen, and beginning a new life.
You will have to go through a serious controlled process to do this correctly to become a bonifide citizen naturalizado.
Only a very few have had a “government connection” and pay huge amounts of “mordida $” to get “their papers”..
I still have many friends down there who will live their last years in Mexico. They love the life, and are affording it.
Mexico does not advertize these requirements, But they are highly controlled.
Always remember that the money sent back to Mexico from the Mexican workers herein the USA,, is the largest amount of their socialist income. Next is tourism in Mexico, like those junket trips to Cancun!
Their third income is Petroleum products they sell.
But always remember that Mexico nationalized all foreign oil interests in 1938,,, and threw out all the foreign workers, and took over (stole) all the oil refineries!!
This is the reason NO American oil company will ever work or help them. Mexico stole all of them.
These refineries are now falling apart, in deed of everything, and are searching for help from anybody.