The US-Mexico Border Fence is a Good Idea

To counter my opponent's arguments1) "While environmental concerns are certainly serious and warrant consideration, we need to balance competing interests here. Only a handful of species that would be threatened by this project, and the endangered species in question can be moved into specially-designed preservation facilities that mimic the natural habitat. On the other hand, there is no other truly effective way to stop illegal immigrant crossings. In this sense, the local environment is a sacrifice of necessity. " Although in several cases it would be easy enough to just move species out of the area, the fence still gets in the way of migration routes that have been in use for hundreds and hundreds of years. Moving the animals would only further disrupt the habitats and migration of the various species.2) "The role of concentrated fencing around urban areas in particular is to prevent immigrants from blending immediately into a city population, and in that sense, it has been effective. Even if you divert some illegal immigrant traffic elsewhere along the border, fencing still reduces overall rates of crossing by forcing those who would cross to go through more dangerous and barren territory. This is a significant deterrent. Although there are people who partake in riskier courses of action to continue to cross, most of the would-be illegal immigrants are deterred. You can also step up border patrols in the areas that do not cover the fence to catch drug smugglers and other illegal border crossers. This reduces the overall number of border patrol agents required to catch would-be illegal immigrants, and as a result, reduces the long-term costs of border protection measures. The fence is meant to be merely a tool in the tool box, not a comprehensive solution to the problem of illegal immigration." The fence only truly has any effect on people crossing the border illegaly on land. There are many other ways to get across the border. For example, many illegal Mexican immigrants cross the Rio Grande into Texas. Another common way immigrants cross the border is by legally obtaining work visas, allowing them to temporarily live in the United States in order to work. However, when these visas expire, they simply remain in the United States instead of leaving. A fence would fail entirely at preventing this from happening, and it seems a waste of American taxpayer's money to pay to upgrade a "tool," as you say, which only solves one part of a problem, and only partially.3) "Law-abaiding citizens have no reaon to fear the border fence. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is an extensive government department that oversees lawful immigration to the United States. Their mission is to secure America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to their customers and granting immigration and citizenship benefits. They will allow people who deserve who possess good character, good work ethic, and a good record to enter the United States. The border fence is only to prevent illegal immigration."The reason that most people immigrate illegally into the United States from Mexico has nothing to do with bad character, a bad record, or a poor work ethic. Actually quite the opposite, especially in the case of the work ethics of illegal immigrants. Many of them are willing to be paid less for jobs than others, and do jobs considered undesirable by others. The main reason for illegal immigration is that legal immigration is a long, expensive process, that many simply cannot afford to go through. Illegal immigration is their only chance, short of marrying an American citizen. 4) "The goal of the fence is to reduce illegal immigration rates, not eliminate them. You say that the number of of illegal immigrants have greatly increased. That is true. But the amount of apprehensions made have decreased by 72% since the construction of the border fence. Yes, there are three times as many illegal immigrants residing in the US, but have you ever thought what the number might have been if there wasn't a border fence? It's true that illegal immigration that will continue to be a problem in the near future, but the border fence is the first step to solving it. And the overall cost of securing the border has actually decreased due to the fact that manning the fence requires less manpower and equipment then physicaly patrolling the border. " I'm not sure if this was a typo or not, but you say the number of apprehensions have decreased by 72%. So what you are saying is, the number of illegal immigrants is going up, but fewer and fewer are being caught.Lastly, I'd like to add a point of my own.Illegal immigrants do not only come from Mexico. They come from Canada, Cuba, Africa, Asia, and all over the world. It is a known fact that many illegal Cuban immigrants live in Miami, and more than 70% of the citizens of Miami are of Hispanic descent. [1] So why is there no fence along the Gulf coast? Or the Canadian border? Why are there no billion dollar fence systems in place along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans? Why is Mexico so important that we need only build fences to stop Mexicans from coming into America?[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org...;