If you talk to a liberal about solutions for our porous border, they are willing to discuss everything but a fixed, border fence. They’ll filibuster the conversation with talk about aerial surveillance, more border agents, “virtual fencing,” cameras, and sensors, etc. But the minute the discussion turns to a physical barrier on the border, they clam up and adamantly oppose it. Why the hatred for a physical fence?
For one thing, fences work. As I noted last year in my report on the border fence, results from the double-layered border fence in San Diego and in Israel demonstrate conclusively that a security fence is a force multiplier in alleviating the burden of border agents. In fact, it has over a 90% success rate in stopping border crossings.
Appallingly, this move coincides with a new surge in illegal immigration from Central America and Cuba, as well as the growing drug crisis in our communities. In addition, there is a mounting concern of those migrating from the Middle East creating an increasing presence in Central America to cross our border and claim asylum. The Washington Post’s Bill Gertz reported in September that the military has already confirmed that at least 30,000 Middle Easterners have crossed the border this past fiscal year. Much like the effort to flood the zone with refugees before Trump is sworn in, President Obama is trying to open our southern border as wide as possible to reap the windfall of the new border surge.
Obama’s abuse of border assets is nothing new. Last December, the DHS Inspector General released a report showing how the administration misused the funding and assets for drone technology and did not deploy them in all of the areas they were supposed to patrol.
What this all demonstrates is that anything other than a big, ugly, “dumb” security fence is worthless in securing our border. National Guard aircraft can be shut off, drones can be grounded, cameras and sensors can be ignored, and border agents can be threatened into turning a blind eye to border crossers. “Smart” technology tends to get too smart with a political leadership committed to open borders. Only a permanent security barrier cannot be tampered with and will not be subject to “prosecutorial discretion” when Democrats inevitably return to power.