The United States should build and maintain a border fence (MIG R6)

Open borders are incompatible with welfareNobel-prize-winning libertarian economist Milton Friedman said “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state,” [12. http://www.nationalreview.com...] Friedman was quoted by Robert Rector, a leading national authority on poverty, the U.S.welfare system and immigration and is a Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow. He elaborates on Friedman's point:To be fully understood, Friedman’s comment should be viewed as applying not merely to means-tested welfare programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing, but to the entire redistributive transfer state. In the “transfer state,” government taxes the upper middle class and shifts some $1.5 trillion in economic resources to lower-income groups through a vast variety benefits and subsidies. Across the globe, this sort of economic redistribution is the largest, if not the predominant, function of government in advanced societies. The transfer state redistributes funds from those with high-skill and high-income levels to those with lower skill levels. Low-skill immigrants become natural recipients in this process. On average, low-skill immigrant families receive $30,160 per year in government benefits and services while paying $10,573 in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of $19,587 that has to be paid by higher-income taxpayers. There is a rough one-to-one fiscal balance between low-skill immigrant families and upper-middle-class families. [12 op cit]We can permit low-skilled labor by having a visa system that ensures that workers are gainfully employed and their employer pays any implicit costs like health care for e worker. With a visa system, workers with seasonal employment can freely return to their home country. It all depends upon having secure borders, which a border fence substantially supports.The border fence is relatively cheapThe border fence is remarkably inexpensive. Talking about several million dollars per mile or more to construct sounds impossibly high, but the amortized cost works out to only about $0.5 billion of the $57 billion Homeland Security Budget. That data show the type of double fence advocated to be extremely effective, and an only slightly more expensive triple fence to be virtually impenetrable. One claim is that if a fence stops conventional overland access, then illegal activities will simply move to remote locations or to other methods of illegal entry. The reason that border crossing is e prevalent method for illegal entry from Mexico is because it is now the easiest method. It is not necessary to make every access method impossible, it is only necessary to make the illegal activity so likely to fail as to not be worth the effort for most. Putting a lock on your front door is not an impenetrable barrier, but it discourages many potential miscreants. Few preventive measures of any type are 100% effective, but many are worthwhile. The border fence is easily justified.The border fence in Israel cut attacks by highly motivated terrorists by 70%, meaning that only 30% found other methods of entry. When a fence is recognized as essentially impenetrable, border patrol officers can be reassigned to policing other methods of entry.A border fence is humaneImmigrants suffer severely in failed attempts to cross the Mexican border. Shoot outs with drug smugglers take a heavy toll on law enforcement officers protecting the border. Strict border enforcement will mean that the routes are shut off and few will attempt to make the crossing. That's positive for both sides.Many reasons for border securityI can see a theoretical argument for open borders for people seeking employment, even though the argument ultimately fails due to welfare costs. However, I don't see even a theoretical argument for unrestricted access by criminals and terrorists, or for human trafficking, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, products of endangered species, and other items on the list of reasons.A border fence is effective and inexpensive. Congress came to that conclusion and appropriated funds for is construction. It should be built.