Texas border mayors block access to proposed fence sites
BROWNSVILLE ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ Mayors along the Texas-Mexico border have begun a quiet protest of the federal government’s plans to build a fence along the border: They are refusing to give access to their land. Mayors in Brownsville, Del Rio and El Paso have denied access to some parts of their city property, turning away federal employees assigned to begin surveys or conduct other preliminary work on the fence meant to keep out illegal immigrants…. “This is exercising our rights. This is our property. We are not going to make it easy for them,” said Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada, who refused last month to sign documents granting government workers permission to enter city property.
Quick…what’s the fastest and most politically expedient way to look as if you’re doing something to win the war on terror AND waste $1.2 BILLION at the same time? If your guess was, “Put up 700 miles of fence along the US-Mexico border in order to keep the Brown People out!”…well, I’d tell you what you’ve won, but the TPRS prize budget is overdrawn this quarter. Just be happy in the knowledge that you hit on EXACTLY what your government is doing to protect you…never mind the reality that it won’t actually do a thing to protect you, because the fence will have more holes than O.J. Simpson’s alibi.
I’d stand up and applaud the border-town mayors who are displaying the cojones to stand up to the ninnies at Homeland Insecurity, but the caffeine hasn’t yet kicked in. Sadly, of course, the mayors will lost their battle, and the fence will be built…because Republicans have to be able to point to something concrete (no pun intended) as eveidence that we’re “winning the war on terror”…whatever the Hell that means.
Theoretically, a fence makes sense. A fence, at it’s most elemental, is designed to keep yourself separated from elements you don’t wish to come into contact with. In reality, though, Homeland Insecurity would be able to more effectively employ $1.2 billion if Michael Chertoff stripped naked, sat on a billboard in Dupont Circle, and burned $100 bills.
The reality here, and this should come as a surprise to absolutely no one is that not only will the fence not work as advertised, the side effects promise to be not insignificant. You just don’t put up a 700-mile fence in the desert without impacting the environment as well as local economies. Texas border towns depend in large part on labor that crosses the border in both directions. Fence that off, and while Republicans will be able to gleefully claim victory, it’s the people in border towns that will be suffering the consequences.
Then there’s also the reality (which Homeland Insecurity conveniently seems to be ignorning) of the US- Canadian border, THE LONGEST UNDEFENDED BORDER IN THE WORLD. Let me just play Devil’s Advocate for a moment if I may. If you’re a terrorist, which would you prefer: to sneak across a heavily-patrolled border in dangerous, even murderous heat…or would you prefer to blithely stroll across a very lightly-patrolled border in comfortable shirt-sleeve weather?
I’m all for the idea of “winning the war on terror”, but when that idea involves the wasteful, politically expedient expenditure of $1.2 billion for what amounts to political window dressing, shouldn’t good and decent people stand up and scream “ENOUGH!!”? For that act alone, we should all be applauding the Texas border city mayors who possess the moral courage and the wherewithal to do exactly that.
If we’re to spent $1.2 billion, shouldn’t that money at least be spent on something that will actually protect us against the Bogeyman terrorism?
