With backs to wall, U.S. considers fences
By BOB KEEFE, LILLY ROCKWELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/23/06
SAN YSIDRO, Calif. ? Juan Rivas remembers people running through the ball fields near his house, right in the middle of baseball games.
"We'd be at a game and we'd see 100 people, sometimes more, run right through here," Rivas, 32, said as he played with his two nephews recently near the same fields. "The border patrol would be right behind them."
WALLS OF THE WORLD
Civilization has long used walls to defend cities, prohibit passage and keep people from entering areas where rulers didn't want them. A look at some of the most famous:
? Great Wall of China: The biggest of them all. Running nearly 4,500 miles, it was created by the joining of smaller walls over nearly two centuries' time. It was designed for military and defensive use, but in actuality did little good.
? Berlin Wall: Built by communist East Germany in 1961 to keep residents from illegally immigrating to West Berlin. The 29-mile wall was torn down in November 1989, after hundreds were killed or injured trying to cross it.
? DMZ: The 150-mile long demilitarized zone along the North Korea-South Korea border is considered the world's most heavily fortified border.
? India: India began building fences around its borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan in the 1980s. The barbed wire fences, electrified in some spots, could eventually span thousands of miles.
? Kuwait: After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, authorities constructed a 120-mile electrified fence between Kuwait and Iraq. More fencing was added later.
? Israel: Despite condemnation from the United Nations, the Israeli government is building a 400-mile, $1.3 billion barrier between Israeli and Palestinian towns and villages. Israel has said the wall, 25 feet high in some spots, is needed for security purposes.
? Saudi Arabia: In late 2003, Saudi Arabia began building a massive barrier along its border with Yemen. Construction was delayed after Yemeni objections. Saudi Arabia later pledged to complete it, but with input from Yemen.
Today, Rivas and others who live in this border town between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, say they rarely see illegal immigrants on the run anymore.
Not since the U.S. government erected the fence, that is.
Some here call it La Linea ("The Line" in Spanish) or the Tortilla Wall. Built beginning in the early 1990s, the $70 million border fence that separates southwestern California from Mexico is made of concrete and steel, and is topped with surveillance cameras, sensors and floodlights. It covers about 14 miles, starting at the Pacific Ocean and running inland just past San Ysidro.
And it may grow. Congress is about to debate again a bill that would add an additional 700 miles of walls, broken up in large spans in California, Arizona and Texas. Currently, only about 60 miles of fences are scattered across other spots in California and Arizona. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other Republicans will ask for about $2.2 billion to pay for the fence, along with training for Border Patrol agents and other security measures.
Proponents say the additional walls, with a high-tech array of cameras, motion sensors and other equipment, are necessary to stem the tide of illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico and protect the United States from terrorists.
"Border security is the first step," for better national security, said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). Along with more fencing along the border, Price supports the use of military personnel to oversee it. "We have a very porous border and none of the restrictions or laws in place seem to have any effect."
Talk to people here about how well the wall works, and you'll get mixed reactions.
U.S. customs officials who work on the border say that since the fence was erected, the number of illegal immigrants they've caught has decreased from 530,000 in 1993 to 127,000 in 2004.
But people who live near the fence aren't sure.
"I don't think it does any good, really," said Cruz Ramirez, a Texas native who retired to San Diego County after 18 years in the Marine Corps. Rivas legally immigrated to the United States from Mexico with his parents when he was about 4.
The existing border fence is just up the hill from a nursery where he and his wife sell palm trees and bougainvilleas. Even though Border Patrol officers seem ever-present along the fence, Ramirez noted that plenty of illegal immigrants still get through.
"Every country should protect its borders," said Ramirez, 59, motioning toward the fence and Mexico. "But I think the money [for more fencing] would be better spent on education and getting the government over there to get more involved so their people won't have a reason to cross over here."
Over, under, around, through
Illegal immigrants seem determined to find ways to get over, under or around any barrier the United Statres erects.
Patrol officers have discovered nearly 40 tunnels under the existing fence in the past five years, including a massive mile-long tunnel that is believed to have been used by drug dealers and led to a warehouse near San Diego.
They've also found collapsible ladders next to the wall on the Mexican side, and frequently find places where holes are cut in the fence. There's also been an increase of people who go around the fence and try to enter the country along the California coast, often disguised as recreational anglers.
"We will constantly be battling this cat-and-mouse game that smugglers [and illegal immigrants] play here on the border," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Diego.
Neither she nor a U.S. Customs official would comment on the proposal for a bigger fence, saying it is not their place to discuss pending legislation.
Organizations such as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a volunteer group that has gained notoriety for its patrols of the border primarily in Arizona, say the fence needs to be extended.
"Clearly the border fence, especially the one proposed ... would eliminate the millions of people we catch a year," said group co-founder Chris Simcox, a former newspaper publisher in Tombstone, Ariz. "We need to continue increasing border security and the security of our coasts at any cost."
Simcox said Wednesday that if President Bush does not deploy military reserves to the Arizona border by May 25, his group and its supporters will break ground on their own fence-building project.
Opponents of the border fence say it only diverts people who want to come into the United States at any cost into more dangerous areas ? namely the deadly deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico.
Last year, 473 migrants died in the desert where temperatures often reach above 100 degrees and rattlesnakes are more common than water. That was up from 330 deaths the year before, according to figures from the Border Patrol.
Advocates for a fence say it works precisely as intended. Immigrants are pushed away from cities and into rural areas, where in some instances they can be located more easily.
Entering U.S. can take hours
The first section of the fence, built in 1992, is made of rusted metal bars taken from old sections of the military's Vietnam-era portable landing strips. A second section, begun in the mid-1990s, is made of metal sheets standing up to 15 feet high and angled at the top toward Mexico.
Together they cover the border just south of San Diego, reaching into the surf of the Pacific Ocean at the west end, and ending in the hills and high desert east of San Diego.
In between, Mexican villages crowd up against the fence on the south side, while the land on the U.S. side is mostly barren.
The main gate along the border fence is where I-5 ends at "Friendship Plaza" in San Ysidro, where more than 25,000 people walk across the border daily. Another 55,000 cars a day fill more than 20 lanes of traffic at the border crossing.
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