maginot line

The fence is going up. Does anyone who voted for this billion dollar boondoggle actually think the fence will improve boarder safety or for that matter that boarder security is such a pressing concern? I can already see the news magazine expose, "So after ten years and 6 billion dollars there are still 500 miles of fence left to go up and many close to the project doubt it will ever be completed. Allegations of fraud and illegal payoffs swirl around the project. And then there's the fact that the fence simply doesn't work."

Flash forward another 50 years. "In what is truly an historic day the first section of the wall that once separated Mexico & the United States is being torn down today."

Border Barrier Approved
The bill, which calls for 700 miles of fence and beefed-up enforcement, easily clears the Senate. It does not include a guest worker program.
Nicole Gaouette, LA Times, 9/30/06

"Estimates of the cost of construction of 700 miles of fencing range from $2 billion to $9 billion, so Congress will need to allocate more money for the project in future years."

Where is this money going to come from?

"Fencing over about 90 miles now runs along the border with Mexico. Some secondary fencing has been installed 50 to 200 yards north of the border around San Diego and Tucson."

"The Secure Fence Act specifies that fencing extend 10 miles to the east and west of Tecate, Calif., and from 10 miles west of Calexico, Calif., to five miles east of Douglas, Ariz."

"In other areas, the fencing would start five miles west of Columbus, N.M., and extend to 10 miles east of El Paso; extend from five miles northwest of Del Rio, Texas, to five miles southeast of Eagle Pass, Texas; and from 15 miles northwest of Laredo, Texas, to Brownsville, Texas."

I'm confused will there be gaps in the fence or does the Secure Fence Act close the existing gaps creating a solid wall from Baja to the Gulf of Mexico?



"As the graffic clearly shows, we ARE safe."
~Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff

Ahhhh, now it's clear Mr. Secretary. Your CV fleshes it out for me. Real estate scandals, homeland security, I see the overlap.

"From 1994 to 1996, he served as Special Counsel for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee."
~dhs.gov

It's two thousand and six, are we really going to erect a 700 mile fence?

How far apart will the guard towers be?