I searched - visually and with the engine - and the most recent thread I could find was from early June, so I apologize if I missed something.
I thought this was a joke the first couple of times I heard it. A fence - a literal fence - stretching across our border with Mexico? No way.
Boy, we’re really going out of our way to present ourselves to the world as a beacon of freedom, huh?
Reminds me of that old song “Signs”.
Where to invest to profit from this financial boondogle?
How much imminent domain is going to be utilized to build it?
What about the legalities of interfering with wildlife sanctuaries and irrigation treaties?
Besides making a lot of bigoted anti-immigrationists happy and a handful genuinely concerned anti-immigrationists happy, will it have any affect?
Spending the money on technology and boots on the ground in Arizona, essentially recreating the situtation in Texas and California that forced mass migration to Arizona in the first place would be better spent.
Then maybe fund ICE appropriately for internal enforcement?
Are we even still trying to present ourselves that way anymore? I thought we were the beacon of “safe place to live if you can afford it, check your civil liberties at the door.”
If you come here legally, yes. But it seems our hospitality is being taken advantage of.
Only because they are needed, they wouldn’t be coming if there wasn’t work. That’s practically like inviting them.
Those horrible illegals, exploiting innocent American employers!
Mexicans: “Oh madre de dios. A fence. Alas, we are undone. Surely there is no possible manner in which this uncanny, force field-like barrier might be breached. Curses, all our plans now lie in ruin. What a cruel turn of fate this is.”
That flushing sound? Six billion dollars swirling away down the drain. I suspect that government-subcontracted fence repair might become hugely profitable in the coming years. At half a million illegal immigrants per year, we could just pay them a thousand American dollars apiece to turn around and go home instead, and the problem would be solved for the next decade.
It’s kinda like if I decided to build a pool in my backyard I might as well build a fence around it too, 'cause the neighbor kids are surely gonna stumble into it and drown themselves and everyone’s gonna call me a dick for not protecting their kids from drowning.
So the US is kinda like a backyard pool and now we have to build a fence around it 'cause the neighbor kids keep trying to get at it and they keep getting exploited, ripped off, injured, maimed, raped, killed and/or just dying from dehydration & heat exhaustion trying to get into it.
$500,000,000 per year to keep illegals out? Sounds like a deal, until the world finds out the US is paying $1000/head to keep people out. Mexico gonna become a very busy thoroughfare.
Well, maybe we could pay all the immigrants a little extra if they promise not to tell anyone about it. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, really; they only speak Spanish down there, and nobody understands Spanish.
Admittedly it’s not a perfect solution. Actually it’s a fairly goofy and ridiculous solution. But then again, so is the fence idea. The bribery idea, on the other hand, has the multiple advantages of stimulating Mexico’s economy in the long term, not interfering with landowners’ rights or the local wildlife, and most importantly, not lowering America’s property value by having a big ugly broken fence along the border.
I don’t get your attitude. It would be anti-freedom if it were to keep US citizens “in” the country like the old East Germany. Keeping people out, unless they are here legally, is not a freedome issue. When I return from Europe by plane I have to go through customs/immigration and there is no way to avoid it. It would be kinda silly if I could just step out of line, walk down the road, and get in without showing ID.
I believe in “tall fences and wide gates”. Lets have an intelligent discussion about how many people to let in legally, but to leave the current system in place is a joke.
Let’s build a fence, have a national ID, and throw business owners in jail for knowingly employing illegals. We can start with the latter as building a fence will take time. And please don’t give me any crap about not liking brown people. I have travelled to more parts of Mexico than most Mexicans and I love the country and its people. I’m all for have a generous immigration policy, but I don’t see why people who follow the rules should stand in line for papers while the law breakers just sneak in.
“Show me a 50 foot fence and I’ll show you a 51 foot ladder.” - Gov. of AZ (I forget her name)
Janet Napolitano.
Attitude shmattitude its a boondoggle. It wont do the job. Old joke show me a 20 ft fence ,ill show you a 21 ft ladder. They are voting to make the constituancy believe that they are doing something. Election year you know.
Voting against the fence would be seen as soft on securing the bnorders and on immmigration. The stupid part is not important.
No intelligent discussion on this topic should involve building a damn fence. See gonzomax’s post. This is election year grandstanding, and hopefully clearer heads will prevail and the thing won’t actually be built.
This reeks of a Monty Python skit, or the owner of City Wok who so desperately wants to keep the goddamn Mongorians out.
Exatamundo! We can argue about whether this is an effective use of our money, but saying this is an assault on freedom is ludicrous.
I don’t, btw, think this is an effective use of our money. My problem with the fence is that it’s unlikely to work. If I thought it would, I’d support it.
I think we should put a statue of Bush, every mile, with a sign that says, “Huddled masses need not apply.”
Tris
Yeah, I haven’t really kept up with the news the last few weeks so I did a double take when I saw that they passed that bill in the newspaper headlines. Then I cracked up so hard because it just sounded like something straight out of a Wile E. Coyote episode. I was picturing in my head a horde of Mexicans jumping over it on pogo sticks. I mean, forget whichever side of the issue I’m on. A fence. A fence. What kind of 4th grader solution is that??
P.S. I’m part Chinese. I seem to recall some of my ancestors trying something like this awhile back. Didn’t work.
It just sends a bad message. Try to imagine it from the viewpoint of a citizen of any other country. Try really hard to imagine it from the viewpoint of a Mexican. Remember that there is no discussion about putting up a fence on the Canadian border.
The whole world thinks we’re an arrogant, exclusive, bigoted, uncaring country club right now and we keep reinforcing their opinion over and over.
[QUOTE=Cisco]
i] … imagine it from the viewpoint of a Mexican. .
The whole world thinks we’re an arrogant, exclusive, bigoted, uncaring country club /QUOTE]
I’m not sure about the whole world, but I know that a whole lot of Mexicans think that this arrogant, exclusive,bigotted, uncaring country is the best place in the world to live.
My grandparents came thru Ellis Island, and I’m proud of it.
But they came legally. And they proudly taught their kids English, and didn’t demand that the schools teach in any other language.
I think he’s referring more to the fact that “bring me your huddled masses” has become “fuck off you dirty foreigners (unless you’re rich)”.