A Border Fence for the US

For my opening remarks, I would like to outline exactly what immediate problems come with a “fence” as defined between the two countries. Price - This one is obvious. When we consider the options of patrolling such a large expanse, we don’t really do the concept in an immediate view. The US/Mexico border is nearly 2,000 miles long. (1) The current staffing of the US Customs and Border Patrol agency is nearly 60,000 people, which includes pilots, officers, field agents, and specialized inspectors. (2) Looking at the simple numbers from “agents”, and “officers” we arrive at approximately 40,000 Border Patrol employees whom potentially have immediate training, the rest of which being dedicated to agriculture, support staff, and other aspects of keeping such an agency running. Dividing out that 40K number across the total mileage of the border, we roughly get one agent/officer dedicated to a stretch of border approximately the size of one foot ball field (265 feet roughly). While that doesn’t sound too bad, keep in mind, that is ALL of our ranks dedicated to one border, for one shift. To effectively cover that patch of desert, we would need at least three men for shift work, ideally three men per shift to cover for lost time incident or outage, and effectively saturate the land with good “eyes on”. Final numbers, real rough estimate wise: 360,000 agents or officers to patrol this area effectively. Given the average low estimate salary for a starting out Customs and Border Patrol agent runs 40,000 dollars per year, lets see what the final price for just the man power comes out to: $14,400,000,000. In referencing what costs are accrued from illegal aliens in the US by state (bottom of the cited page for an easy graphic), we find that the average household’s illegal immigration costs would be substantially less than the agents paid to find them. (3) Given the significant dollar tag already attached to this project in sheer man hours, Con will forego a tally up potential hardware assets such as vehicles, protective gear, the cost of the actual fence itself, stations and structures, etc that would be needed to service such a literal “army”. On that note, there are certain precautions to be later addressed. Punishment - Okay, what do we do with them once we catch them? Bus them back? Fly them home? Jail them? Without hitting up the price points again, we are talking about bus loads of people that would need to be detained, processed, and re-bused again with no guarantee of their cessation of return. If we were to jail these individuals, in addition to further costs for them being incarcerated, and again sucking down funds for their upkeep, we will still have to find a way to get them back home once their sentence is served. The obvious solution here is not a fence, it’s a detailed diplomatic negotiation in which Mexico pays for its citizens that have crossed over illegally. This is an incredibly complicated solution at face value, however agreements between countries are much easier to implement that the undertaking implied with a border fence. America’s interests are better served in diplomacy that heavy handed measures when it comes to the world community. Potential for success - Will it work? While an argument from incredulity, history is riddled with examples of failed borders ranging from the Berlin Wall to the Great Wall of China. Hadrian’s Wall fell victim to ignoring the logistics mentioned under price. It seems as though such a construction would do nothing more than breed a better class of border hopper, or make engagements between the jumper and agents that much more contentious due to the patrolled and militarized nature of the border fence. Is it possible that in the dead of night, ambitious migrant workers are mistaken for a reported gang of drug traffickers? Tensions running high in such a circumstance can immediately lead to a large scale international incident. Con contends that such a risk is not near America’s goals in deterring illegal immigration. Precautions – As mentioned previously, there are certain precautions to outfitting a large collection of individuals and giving them unfettered access across the private lands of citizens along the border. The Posse Comitatus Act was designed in spirit to prevent the use of the Army to engage in state disputes, or as an enforcement of laws. While the Act wouldn’t specifically apply here, the concern is apparent. A buildup of militarized hardware with the intent of “keeping the populace safe” beings to flirt dangerously close to viewing its own citizenry as immediate enemy. The “Price” section of this opening indicates raw man power, which can be mitigated through the use of various surveillance technology, though new problems arrive with what would constitute illegal spying on lawful Americans. Investing all this technology and hardware into a large collection of individuals with the tag line of “for your protection…” flies in the face of what the spirit of the Posse Comitatus Act intended to prevent. Such privacy/constitutional issues shouldn’t be broached in a manner that the creation of a border fence creates. The citizens of the US are done poorly by immediate intrusion with no real oversight as to how the operations might be conducted. Conclusion - It seems there is no easy solution. Fitting, since this is no easy problem, and there are a lot of lives, money, and potential invasion of privacy for so little odds of success. Living in the 21st century gives us the ability to make through diplomacy a better end while still ensuring the dignity and deportation of those rounded up by means of a policy not requiring hundreds of thousands of men and women to be veritably stranded at outposts continually patrolling scrub land for people (near-do-well and illegal migrant laborer alike). (1) . https://help.cbp.gov... (2) . https://www.cbp.gov... (3) . http://amac.us...