A fence should not be built around U.S borders, anywhere

Hello, I apologize for forfeiting Round 1. I was away and had no computer access. So here goes: Intro: I agree with Pro's assessment of the resolution and the definitions that has has provided. Rebuttal: My opponent's first point is that separatism leads to war, and therefore a fence that promotes separatism promotes conflict and thus you should vote Pro. I have 2 arguments against this. First, there are a lot of other causes to war than just separatism which he claims is the "root cause of all harm that man intentionally causes to his fellow man." His assumption is not true; imperialism, militarism, money, power and military alliances are just a few other examples of what has caused wars in the past. These causes are far more prevalent than the example he has provided. Moving on to my opponent's self-proclaimed SOLE contention, he argues, "building a fence on the US border is a manifestation of separatism. At best, it shows that the United States doesn't want anybody coming into their country, and at worst, it shows that the United States thinks it's better than its neighbors." This is blatantly untrue. I will discuss why it is untrue when I begin listing my very own contentions. Finally my opponent attempts to utilize the argument that as Americans we do not have the RIGHT to build a border fence, because technically Native Americans inhabited this country first, and figuratively nobody can 'own' land. This is absurd. First, I was born in America. That makes me a Native American. By that logic, this land is as much mine as it was Pocahontas's. Second, the USA definitely owns the land within its borders. You can spew hippie quotes all you want about mother earth, but the fact is that the USA (tax payers) not only pay to live on this land, but we, as Americans, also protect it, secure it, and are held responsible for what happens within it. That makes this land very much ours. If you disagree, you are saying that when you buy a house, the property you bought and maintain is not really yours. Figuratively one might agree, but literally, everybody knows that you would be responsible for what happened on your property because you are the property OWNERS. Contentions: To prove why a fence should be built around U.S. borders, I will include facts that describe the current problem, and reasons why a border fence would be the most appropriate solution. First, the January 2005 Bear Sterns report estimates that there are over 20 million illegal immigrants living within the borders of the United States. If you think this is not a problem, consider the amount of money it costs this country to illegally house them in our home. Tax payers have spent upwards of 10 billion dollars in California alone to cover the costs of things like education, health care and incarceration for illegal aliens. Now even if my opponent does not mind paying higher taxes to support the illegal immigrants that don't pay ANY taxes, my opponent is not a representative of the entire nation, and his beliefs should not speak for the rest of the country. This is especially true since our founding fathers fought hard against increasing taxation; how would they feel if our very own tax dollars were being spent on people from another country? It'd be the American Revolution all over again, but this time, we'd be revolting against ourselves. Now as my opponent pointed out, most of us are probably descendants of immigrants. Afterall, the United States is the melting pot of the world. However the difference is that most of our ancestors were not ILLEGAL immigrants. They probably passed through Ellis Island, were inspected and approved, and were therefore held accountable for all of the responsibilities of a U.S. citizen the second they stepped foot out of those doors and onto American soil. They were not given any hand-outs, so why should illegal immigrants from today have that privilege? Additionally, illegal immigrants manage to find work while living in our states. That's unfortunate for the 1.62 million Americans actively seeking work, but who are currently unemployed. Not only are these illegal aliens taking American jobs, but they are also not being subjected to an income tax which every other citizen is mandated to pay. Additionally, since my opponent wants to talk about human rights, consider the fact that most immigrants are paid well under minimum wage. Thus they are working hard for less than is lawfully permissable in the United States. If nothing else, a border fence should be built around this country because of all of the illegal activity that it would police. What is the point of establishing laws if people are allowed to break them left and right? For now I'd like to shift my attention to a few other problems regarding insecure borders. First, people are not the only thing smuggled into this country. With them comes a lot of illegal drugs, including harmful narcotics from South America. If this country truly supports the War on Drugs, then the first step is taking the initiative to make it harder for drugs to be smuggled in. Next I'd like to discuss illegal immigrants other than Mexicans or OTMs as they are called. Between 2007 and 2008, over 450 OTMs have been apprehended including those from Angola, Jordan, Pakistan, Yemen and - you guessed it - Afghanistan. Which brings me to my final point: national security. While Mexicans may be generally harmless (other than milking our economy dry), unsecure borders means that individuals from ANY nation can potentially enter this country rather easily. If we want to employ a War on Terror, the first step (again) is to secure our borders from our enemies. Considering that we have instigated a VERY unpopular war, and have thus made enemies all over the globe, it is in our best interest to ensure that not only people, but also weapons used for violence and other forms of chemical warfare be stopped from entering our country. Now that I have pointed out all of the valid problems facing this country today regarding illegal immigration, I would like to discuss the best possible solution to these problems: building a border fence. While I admit that no solution is flawless, it is clear that the most appropriate action to be taken would be to make it infinitely harder for illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. by land. Now I am not advocating for a Berlin like wall to be built around our country and keep American citizens fenced in like prisoners. Rather I am proposing obstacles to be overcome in ordr to enter our country. Examples (taken from other supporters) include a ditch, coiled barbed wire, sturdy wire fences with censors, a smooth strip of sand to detect footprints, and closed circuit TV cameras and motion detectors. Building a border fence is the best possible solution for several reasons. First, simply adding more border agents won't work. We currently have 11,000 people patrolling the Mexican-American border; to be effective, we'd need about 200,000 agents which is way too costly, not to mention a waste of valuable resources. But speaking of cost-effectiveness, this state of the art fence would only cost between 4 and 8 billion dollars to build. That's tens of billions of dollars LESS than we as tax payers currently spend on illegal immigrants. And finally, legal trade, tourism and commerce would not be made impossible via check points that allow people and goods to pass. Conclusion: As you can see, securing our boders is NOT about separatism. My opponent claims that at best it gives off the impression that we do not anybody entering our country, and at worst, it portrays us as racist elitests. That is simply untrue. Securing our borders is about what is fair for out very own law abiding and tax paying citizens, and for safety and protection not only abroad but right here on our very own soil.