Fence Watch

It looks like we're much closer to getting the security first arrangement than most observers thought possible. A vote on cloture yesterday (71-28) means that a vote on a 700+ mile security fence along the US-Mexico border is imminent and should result in passage. Sen. Bill Frist appears to have managed to get one of the components of the border control package done before the end of the session. The other component, dealing with treatment of illegal aliens already in the country, appears to be a dead issue since the House will not pass a similar version. Frist goes on to say the following:

By requiring the construction of at least 700 miles of two-layered reinforced fencing along our southwest border and by mandating the use of cameras, ground sensors, UAVs and other forms of hi-tech surveillance, this legislation will help us gain control over every inch of our borders. The Homeland Security appropriations bill authorizes $1.8 billion in funding … so construction will proceed as quickly as possible. As the fence is erected, more funding in future budgets will be required, but I’m confident that the 71 Senators who proved themselves serious about border security today will support continued funding.

And the 27 Democrat Senators who opposed this crucial measure? Their votes serve as a reminder of the stakes of the elections this November. Democrats like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Maria Cantwell, Robert Menendez, and Harry Reid have again proven they don’t understand what it takes to secure the homeland. They simply cannot be trusted to support real action to secure our borders and they cannot be trusted to lead.

Let's be clear here. They were voting against ending cloture, and have not actually cast their vote on the measure. It is still possible that they'll vote against the fence, but that vote is not yet upon us.

The bill under consideration is here. This article provides a snapshot of how contentious the issue of border control has been in Congress, with different versions coming from the Senate and House, and politics at work.

Here's one analysis of whether the fence would actually work in deterring illegal aliens crossing the border or improving national security:

Members of the the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives agreed Monday at a reconciliation conference on the funding they would approve to boost border security as part of a $34.9 billion appropriations package for the Department of Homeland Security.

The bill allocates $1.2 billion to build 700 miles of security fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. The fence would involve advanced technology sensors and 1,800 towers built by Boeing and equipped with sensors.

Critics of the bill argue that that it will not stop perhaps scores of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people from Mexico from continuing to try and get through every year. They also point out correctly that the bill nowhere tackles the key economic forces driving the immigration. It contains no provisions whatsoever to penalize employers within the United States, especially in the southern and southwestern border-states from employing illegal workers.

As long U.S. federal authorities are prevented from effectively cracking down on such employers, the magnetic pull of better-paying jobs for immigrants will continue to lure them north from Mexico.

However, the significance of the bill should not be casually dismissed either. It is certainly the case that in the long run of decades, generations and centuries, eventually long walls or border fences usually do come tumbling down. But they usually work very well indeed for a very long time first.

The Great Wall of China was famously breached three or four times over the millennia by hoards of barbarian invaders who did conquer China like the 13th century Mongols. But it worked very well for hundreds of years at a time in keeping them out. The German Army, or Wehrmacht, never breached the French Army's Maginot Line in 1940. They had to go around it. In the fall of 1944, the defenses of the Wehrmacht's own Siegfried Line, once it was fully manned, stopped even U.S. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army in its tracks and helped keep Nazi Germany in the war for another half a year.

One can argue that this fence only has to work long enough for the Mexican government to get its own house in order such that people do not feel it necessary to cross into the US to obtain jobs, health benefits, and all the advantages they get by coming to the US.