Is Sealing the U.S.-Mexico Border Really Possible?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Tens of thousands of e-mails, phone calls, and Web hits in the last couple of days on our coverage. This has been amazing. First, we did language, then jobs. Tonight, we're going to do the border, what some call the invasion. You're about to hear from a woman who says living there is hell.</s>SANCHEZ: Boiling mad over Mexican flag, he rips it down. This guy has had enough.</s>JIM BROSSARD, CUT DOWN MEXICAN FLAG: I want somebody to fight for this flag. They're not going to get it back.</s>SANCHEZ: Tonight, what every American should know about our border. Fence or no fence. Where? How tall? What's the answer? Or is this the answer, rounding up illegal immigrants?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's been convicted of a number of crimes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what are you going to do with him?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He will be removed from the United States.</s>SANCHEZ: Do these guys deserve it? In on word, yes. We will explain.</s>CARLOS MENCIA, COMEDIAN: I tell people sometimes. People will come up to me and go, hey, man, you're really funny. Where were you born? And I'm like Honduras. And they literally just go, what part of Mexico is that?</s>SANCHEZ: Inside the mind of Mencia on why not everybody's a Mexican. There are differences. Did you know? And he washes dishes for 11 years and saves $59,000. Make him pay a fine. Make him pay taxes. But don't take all his money away. It just doesn't seem right. All this OUT IN THE OPEN.</s>SANCHEZ: Hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. Imagine having hundreds of people walking through your backyard every single day. Imagine what it's like to have to live like that. Why can't we keep them out? That's what we hear a lot of people asking these days. But then there's another argument. Ann Coulter made it to me today. She was sitting right here in this chair. And she said, well, we do need some of them in this country. We have been hearing from so many of you over the last days about our immigration problem. Tens of thousands of people have been e- mailing us and writing us and calling us. There are at least 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States right now. If you ask my sparring partner, Lou Dobbs, he will tell you, no, it's about 20 million that are in the United States; 57 percent of those people it's important to know are from Mexico. So, how do you build a fence to stop something like that? You know, I like to break this stuff down so people can really get it. Let's go to the big wall. Here it is. Here's the numbers. If you look at the wall going across part of the area between Mexico and the United States, there it is right there. It's about 1,952 miles. You got that, right? In 2005, Congress says ,you know what? We're going to build a fence, and it's going to be about 700 miles that we're going to be able to put across there. How much of that 700 miles have they done so far? About 145 miles so far. By the way this is important. They finished 70 of it this week. And you're probably asking, well, if there's that many miles, Rick, why don't they have one long continuous fence that goes 1,952 miles? I will give you the answer to that question. Come over here. I have been talking to a lot of the immigration and ICE guys about this. And they have been coming up with a strategy. And, essentially, here's their strategy. Over here you have got San Diego, right? Let's go in a little. That's a Google Earth map. Let's go in a little bit more. Now, let's suppose that they're building their fence all the way like that. But once in a while they have to stop it, right? And they stop it there. And then they pick it up again. And then they will stop it there, right? And then they will pick it up again. So you have got these areas right in here, which is exactly what they want. The strategy is to funnel these people into these areas, because these are not populated areas. These are remote areas. So, you have got mountains over here. You have got desert over here. It's harder for them to get there. Those who do eventually usually are in smaller numbers. That was the idea. Not necessarily the way it's working. By the way, two things to point out on this, because I have been talking to a lot of the people here as I fly into this area and talk to them and cover this story. On this side they're saying, well, that's not fair, because when you make these people go through a desert or a mountain area it's more dangerous and a lot more of them have died. There's also this. People on this side, the coyotes, the people who are making money off of this, are saying, great, more money for us. They're getting little vans and literally, let me clear that up for you, and literally driving them to the border and then dropping them off and saying, OK, now you're on your own. That's the story of what's going on, on the border. I really wanted to break that down for you. Let's go to Thelma Gutierrez. She's in San Ysidro, California. She's at one of the nation's busiest border crossings to break this down for us with a firsthand view. Thelma, pick it up for us.</s>THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rick, I can tell you, I'm here on the U.S. side of the border. Now, this fence, this 14-foot- tall fence that you see right behind me, was designed by Sandia Labs. They came up with the best idea that they could to create a foolproof fence. Now, we're going to walk right through. And as we cross the road, about 75 feet away, there is Mexico. It's just a few feet away from this area. And up until five years ago, the only barrier that existed between the United States and Mexico was that corrugated fence right off in the distance.</s>GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The fence. U.S. taxpayers are paying about $3 million a mile for this concrete and steel barrier, according to Homeland Security officials. And the U.S. government has laid out an ambitious goal, 370 miles of it along the U.S./Mexico border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, all by the end of next year.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is a very ambitious number to complete. And we will do our very best.</s>GUTIERREZ: One hundred and forty-five miles built so far, 225 miles and a lot of challenges to go.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have got steep terrain, as you can see, all the way from the ocean to the deserts, high mountains, very treacherous, rocky terrain. And we need to prepare that.</s>GUTIERREZ: The fence is actually a series of separate fences. The section in San Diego is what Captain John Cobbs (ph) of the Army National Guard is tasked with completing. He says different parts of the fence are different heights and different materials.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's commonly referred to as Ballard (ph) fencing.</s>GUTIERREZ: Sixteen-foot-tall concrete and steel posts narrowly spaced, designed to allow small animals to cross, not humans.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little difficult for a human to squeeze through this.</s>GUTIERREZ: But people have done it using car jacks, and it's very expensive to fix. Then there's the old metal barrier built in the '90s, made from surplus Vietnam-era aircraft landing mats. But they're not much of a deterrent. The barrier of preference is a see- through mesh fence on the border near San Diego. Cobb's team is trying to build 14 miles by the deadline and they're halfway there.</s>JAMES JACQUES, U.S. BORDER PATROL: Historically, this is the busiest area nationwide, 500,000 apprehensions annually just in this area. What used to take 30 to 40 agents to cover this five-mile stretch we can now do with five to 10 agents.</s>SANCHEZ: Thelma Gutierrez joins us now there from San Ysidro. Let me ask you a question about this fence, because you're looking at the new one and the new technology that we saw in your report. How is that working or do we know yet compared to the older finances they were using?</s>GUTIERREZ: Rick, I can tell you just in the last hour that we were standing out here, three men, we saw three men actually cross over this fence and go off into the hills in the distance, trying to run away. One man was off limping. Obviously he was hurt as he tried to scale this 14-foot-tall fence. But this fence, as all barriers, Border Patrol will tell you they are penetrable. People can get through. If there's a will, there is a way. And one of the Border Patrol agents told me just a short time ago, if you build a 14-tool-tall fence the people will build a 15- foot-tall ladder -- Rick.</s>SANCHEZ: That's an interesting perspective, getting it from there where you are. Thelma Gutierrez, thanks so much for that report. So what's it like to actually live along the border? That's an important perspective. And you're going to talk to a woman -- or you're going to hear from a woman I should say in just a little bit who says, Rick, you know what it's like? It's like hell. Can we really seal this thing off? Or will they keep finding ways to eventually sneak in? Also, flying the Mexican flag above the U.S. flag. Uh-oh. It's enough to make one veteran boiling mad. Is this about respect, or ignorance, or both?