Wall necessary, even with tech
Walls have been shown to be effective in California and El Paso, and the Israeli wall has stopped up to 99 percent of its illegal immigration. More than 76 countries now have walls or other types of barriers to reduce illegal immigration.
The problem is that the California wall is a short length. If it were longer, it’d stop more illegal immigration.
A 131-mile fence bordering El Paso cut illegal immigration there by almost 90 percent.
Many, including U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, believe that a physical wall/fence is ineffective, and illegal immigration can be controlled more effectively with high-tech devices like drones and sensors.
While the high-tech approach may lead to the capture of most or even all the illegals, it doesn’t solve the problem.
Once illegals step foot onto U.S. soil, given the state of current legislation and court rulings, they’re here to stay.
We can’t hold them long enough to determine if they have justification to stay, and once released, a high percentage never show up for their immigration hearings.
Then the American citizens/taxpayers get the bill for the welfare and other support that the illegals qualify for (e.g., multilingual schools and citizenship for their children born here.)
We need a physical wall/fence every place where it’s probable that they can make it onto U.S. soil, and then use the high-tech equipment to catch the relatively few that can get in despite the physical obstacles.
The argument that illegals break the law (other than by illegal entry) at a lower rate than our citizens isn’t justification for allowing illegal immigration to continue — if they weren’t here, we’d at least have that much less crime, some of which is deadly.
And stopping drug trafficking has to be very high on the priority list. Drug entry though the El Paso area was cut in half once the fence there was built. Remotely controlled sensors capable of detecting tunnels used by traffickers is becoming available and could shut down the majority of the drugs coming in when used with a wall/fence that would stop the relatively small amount brought in by drug mules.
Walls/fences alone may not solve all the problem, but as Confucius said, “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”