Border Fence

Thank you Con for your well written response! I will begin by rebutting some of your arguments. 1)Cost It's no secret that the Border fence is fairly expensive, but it is in fact effective. [1] "The number of people caught crossing illegally has dropped dramatically from 600,000 a year in the early '90s to just 153,000 last year" What if we didn't have the fence? Then what would we do? What do you suggest that we do instead? We have already built it, it's not like we can just tear it down, then that would be a waste of money. Since we have already built it, it only makes sense to keep building onto it since it actually works. If we didn't have the fence, we would have a much higher crime rate, more illegal immigration occurring, transporting of unsafe deadly drugs and of course, Human trafficking. 2)Effectiveness As mentioned in my previous argument in the round aboive, i have proven that by building the fence, the rate of them trying to trespass has declined. [2] "Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier this month, found that the average rate for both violent and property crimes had dropped in the US Southwest border states. Arizona saw the most significant decline, of 33 percent over the seven-year time period. Other decreases were seen in Texas (30 percent), California (26 percent), and New Mexico (eight percent from 2005 onward).Significantly, violent crime was found to be lower in border counties than in non-border counties for all the years examined in three out of the four states -- California, New Mexico and Texas -- with Arizona the only exception." As shown above, cmuch more crimes appear in states with "lower in border counties" than in non-border counties. So how is this not effective? [3] "n Columbus, N.M., a 6-mile pedestrian fence has resulted in decreased apprehensions by 60 percent and a 100 percent decrease in narcotics. “It is clear that the implementation of infrastructure in targeted areas of New Mexico has had a tremendous impact on reducing the volume of apprehensions in those areas,” El Paso Sector Chief " Again, just another example to show the effectiveness. 3)Price in human lives Yes, I agree many have died in attempt to cross the border. But many of these people crossing are not just crossing to try to have "better lives" for their self's and their families. Trying to cross the border is a dangerous act. You would be risking your families life's. As a citizen living in Mexico, you should know that trying to cross the border is dangerous. So why would you try to acheive such a thing? What about the people bringing over deadly drugs? Those who are involved with Human Trafficking? no matter what the case, for then likely if they get caught, they are going to have to pay the cost. They know how dangerous it is to try and cross the fence, yet they still want to try? How is it our fault that they are dying? We're just trying to protect OUR citizens from their dangerous act's. It's not our fault that they are dying by trying to commit dangerous crimes. They know their actions, they know the effects and consequences. 4)Environmental impact & Better Alternative The problem here with the "Enviormental issues, is that there really is no threat to the enviorment. All you really say is "“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filled in the canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch…with over 2 million cubic yards of earth that had been ripped from adjacent mountaintops, and planted the border wall on top of the berm." You state the problem, but yet there has not been any major issues with this. Then you go on to say that " Several endangered species are also threatened. The bighorn sheep and desert tortoise suffer from habitat fragmentation resulting from the border and patrol roads slicing through their territory. The DHS also cut down more than 100 rare tecate trees, which are the host plant for the rarer Thorne’s hairstreak butterfly which is found nowhere else in the U.S" It seems as if you are insinuating that the species live's are more important then humans. I mean what's more important, keeping species safe, or protecting our country and citizens? Better alternative? "For reasons stated above, extending the border fence is evidently not the best solution to illegal immigration, as it does not address any of the issues that drive migrants to cross the border. Instead, we should focus on a plan that provides an easier path to citizenship and improves legal immigration, which would reduce the need to migrate illegally" This is a horrible idea. America is already over popluated [4]""We Are Breeding Ourselves to Extinction" March 9, 2009" as told by New York Timesmagazine reporter. We don't have enough room to keep brining in Immigrant's. It's already tough enough for American Citizen's to find a job here in America. [6] Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 126,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade, while mining lost jobs. Argument #2 Unemployment & Why legal immigration is bad [7] Household Survey Data In March, the unemployment rate held at 5.5 percent, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 8.6 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.8 million, respectively. This argument goes along with your "Better Alternative" plan. I mean, America already suffers a low unemployment rate, and if we did make it easier for immigrants to come over, more jobs would be taken, or it would be harder for them to find a job, thus causing them to have no money. [8] The unemployment rate of immigrants fell to 8.1% in 2012, the same as the jobless level for people born in America. This marks the first time in several years that immigrants have not had a higher jobless rate. More Immigrants= A higher Unemployment rate. [9] We have a million legal immigrants per year, and the vast majority of them enter the labor market competing with Americans for scarce job opportunities. The result is wage depression, though there are other factors that restrict wage growth, and persistently high unemployment above the 5 percent level that most economists believe is unhealthy. As you can see, making it easier and legal, for immigrants to come live here in America is not only bad because of the high unemployment rate, but for American's who have been living in poverty and have been trying to find a job for months to put food on the table for their own families. 10. More reasons as to why legal immigration is bad. [10] 1: over population 2: taking jobs away from citizens who are capable and trained 3: terrorists get visas too 4: chain immigration (the ability to bring in unlimited family members) 5: adequate growth cannot be planned for schools, homes, roads, hospitals, because of fluctuation in age groups. 6: at least 40% of visa holders over stay and become illegal. 7: legal immigrants with little or no education also put a heavy burden on welfare services. 8: birthright citizenship. Your child should be a citizen only if at least 1 parents is a US citizen. 9: No plan in place to adequately supervise peoples return to home country when visa expires. 10: No adequate screening in place to check for criminals, terrorist etc. Here are just few facts as to why we don't need more legal immigrants. First off, we put up a border fence to PROTECT American's from them, and to stop illegal immigration, but know we are just going to waste our money with the fence, and just make legal immigration okay? We don't need more immigrant's. We need to worry about OUR own citizens and help them first. Our country should come first. Sources: [1] http://www.cbsnews.com... [2] http://www.insightcrime.org... [3] https://www.numbersusa.com... [5] http://rense.com... [6] http://www.bls.gov... [7] http://www.bls.gov... [8] http://economy.money.cnn.com... [9] http://nationalinterest.org... [10] https://answers.yahoo.com...