I just saw Sen. Joe Lieberman on Fox News. He wanted to explore the possibility of closing off the Southern Border with Mexico as a safety precaution while the US got a handle on the Swine Flu situation. The World Health Organization had just upped the health threat to 5 out of a possible 6. Vice President Joe Biden was on national television telling America that he would not let his family travel on an airplane. However, the Obama administration would not even entertain the idea of discussing border closure.
Could that possibly have anything to do with the fact that today Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy and President Obama are steaming full speed ahead with a new push for comprehensive immigration reform? Sen. Lieberman expressed his hope that DHS Secretary Napolitano would at least keep the idea on her radar if the situation turned into a pandemic.
Millions of people illegally cross our Southern Border every year. Many of those are lured here by the promise of free and superior health care. While tracking smugglers in the Arizona deserts, we often found diabetic medication, syringes and other evidence of poor health among those crossing into the US. The strain on our health-care system is enormous. While Mexico closes its schools, government and urges people to stay indoors, the United States couldn’t close her border even if she wanted to.
Make no mistake, our border is broken because the businessmen, narco-terrorists, politicians and special interest powers that be, want it to that way. But even if the American citizenry rose up in such overwhelming voices as to affect a 180 in Washington, the fence would not stop squat.
According to CBS News, it has cost 1.2 billion dollars to build approximately 600 miles of border fence. They predict it could cost 50 billion to finish and maintain that fence. After spending that kind of money, it is no wonder most Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security. While the fence has increased security in high traffic areas like California’s Imperial Beach, it does so because it acts as a force multiplier. You still need adequate forces on the ground to go after the shifts in human traffic.
On Jan. 23, 2006, after Mexican military humvees crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, local authorities asked the US Federal Government for help. Firstly, the Federal Government wanted to confiscate all copies of the Sheriff’s video footage of the event. Secondly they built a fence. They built a fence in the wrong place. This segment of the border fence stops 500 yards short of where the Mexican military crossed into the US. Should the Mexican military decide to do so again, the path is still open. Not only that, but the three miles of fence that has been built, has three gaps in it big enough to drive a truck through. (see photo) Someday there may be gates at these gaps, if they can figure out how to make them light enough for female agents to open. Until then, these gaps have well trodden paths leading down to and across the Rio Grande into Mexico.
This section of the fence was also designed to be portable in case of flooding. The cement sections can be moved with a large forklift or bulldozer. It just so happens that there is a bulldozer right across the river. This dozer has been aiding smugglers for years. Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth Co. has even put out a bounty on the vehicle.
In the same area is an unguarded footbridge and a cable car, with the car waiting on the Mexican side. There aren’t even any surveillance cameras at these locations. The bushes on the Mexican side of the footbridge are littered with layup areas where human traffic and smugglers wait till Border Patrol clears and they can safely cross.
I often wonder why the same images of the fence are shown over and over on the MSM, while the images that the border locals are familiar with are still such a secret.
Make no mistake, if I was a Mexican national and one of my kids got infected with Swine Flu, I would be the first making a bee line to one of those gaps. I don’t blame any parent for wanting to save the lives of their children. That would be an illegal, but honorable act. It is dishonorable for Washington politicians to create the illusion of security while leaving American citizens unprotected from foreign threats.
Chris Burgard
Bordermovie.com
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