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Work Resumes On Virtual Fence With Mexico
Hugh Pickens writes "Work resumed this week on the five-year project to link a chain of tower-mounted sensors and other surveillance equipment over most of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. The network of cameras, radar, and communications gear is intended to speed deployment of US Border Patrol officers to intercept illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and other violators, yielding greater 'operational control' over the vast and rugged area. A $20M pilot project for the Secure Border Initiative, or 'SBInet,' carried out in the Bush administration, was generally considered a colossal IT failure. Since that time the DHS has given the prime contractor, Boeing, another $600M. The government says it has learned many lessons and made many changes in the program since the previous pilot rushed off-the-shelf equipment into operation without testing. The Obama administration has lowered the cost estimate for the 5-year project by $1.1B, to $6.7B, mainly by deferring work on the most difficult 200 miles of the border, in southwest Texas."
If you can see it, and it's there, it's real.
If you can see it, but it's not there, it's virtual.
If you can't see it, and it's not there, it's gone.
Which applies to the state of this fence?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Clearly you've not had to go through the hassles of legal immigration and can't see why those of us that have get fucked off when a load of people decide the rules don't apply to them.
Those people who have to work low paying jobs get pissed off too because some employers rather pay less and deal with people's poor english rather than playing by the rules.
Quite frankly if we're happy to just let the poor flood in from Mexico then we might as well remove H1-B visa limits too and let companies bring in as much cheap labour as they want to fill higher-end jobs.
and if anyone's wondering how fucked we are in England we're this fucked:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45737000/jpg/_45737580_brown226getty.jpg
Yes, that's a real picture and yes, the last European leader who pushed ID cards for every citizen starting with select minorities and immigrants had those banners behind him too.
How much of the problem is people walking over the border, compared to people overstaying their visas?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
It's been a long time since I learned about US history in school but I get the distinct impression you're forgetting something. What what that, again? .... April showers?
Since illeal immigrant are getting health care, police protection, (add a number of government supplied services here) anyway.. just take the plunge, make them citizens... and then proceed to tax the bejesus out of them.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Now please address the hundreds of thousands of illegal alien gangbangers who commit a huge amount of violent crime in the US. In detail, please tell us what should we do about it, and how you can tell by merely looking who is a good illegal alien and who isn't. And also make a case for raising local property taxes to pay for all of this, make the case why we should pay for people here illegally who in no way are paying enough in taxes to offset the increased needs of local communities with increased hospital costs (they basically overwhelm local emergency rooms with normal healthcare demand and usually having no insurance the tab has to be picked up by everyone else), increased police costs(see previous mention of gangbangers and do the research to verify there are in fact hundreds of thousands of them now, and even if incarcerated run around 50 grand a year to maintain them in prisons), increased local schooling costs, etc.
Just ONE kid costs around 20 grand a year if they are suddenly in the community and need to be schooled, from year to year costs and new physical plants needed because of capacity issues. In my area, they are having to build one new public school per year, and have done so over the past around six years now because of the influx of illegals. There is no way in hell that an illegal family with one, two, three or more kids is paying 20,40 or 60 thousand a year in local property taxes to pay for that, That is coming out of other folk's pockets. Please make the case why you think that is fair or sustainable, or how that 40 grand for those two kids is balanced with your tamale diet. Are YOU willing to pay the extra schooling costs of those two kids out of your pocket? No? Why should your neighbors then, make the case please.
Also please make a case why relieving pressure on Mexico to actually develop a workable social and economic system and pay a living wage down there is not more desirable.
Mexico is an insanely corrupt medieval styled fiefdom run by around 200 billionaire families who are interconnected with the government and the drug cartels. Why do you support such a system that is the primary cause of the people fleeing their own nation? Do you think they really want to leave? Wouldn't it be better to use harsher methods with the alleged so called government there to be more fair with their own people? Why do you think giving those corrupt plutocrats a full skate is such a good idea, and why should we pay for that?
Can't you see that by having a release valve here that just perpetuates that corrupt system there, rather than letting it get to the point that the people there clean up their own mess, using whatever means are necessary?
And where does it end? The planet now has 7 billion people, how many millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions more illegals are we supposed to absorb in the US? Really, give us an exact number, and also how you come up with that number. And if there is a cutoff point, aren't you back to saying we should have controlled immigration like is supposed to be the law now? Or is it your point that we should have no immigration rules, just let in and out whomever wishes, no questions asked ever?
Are you starting to see the larger picture now, and why this isn't a simple issue, and why people who are concerned over unchecked illegal immigration have some points?
This is simple if you can get past you little local anecdotals.
People need to flee their own land, ask the question, why? Answer, it sucks royally where they are at. Now ask why that is so, and do the research to find out. Now you are closer to a real sustainable answer. The solution to the illegal Mexican alien immigration issue is to institute and force reforms so that Mexico doesn't suck in the first place
The US has to stop kowtowing to those top 200 feudal families who run that place and start cracking down on them, using the same means we would use with any other
I'm Anglo and I'm for unimpeded immigration because I want freedom. I believe in free markets and free people. I want the ability to legally live and work anywhere and believe others should have that freedom as well. I also believe freedom is a good thing economically speaking. It allows people to go to where the jobs are. I see the lack of border enforcement between the states and I see that it works out pretty well. Even though we have poor states and rich states, there aren't many people who believe erecting fences between them would be a good idea. The only problem I could potentially see between us and Mexico is the language, but the EU has proven that even that isn't a big issue.
For me, that's the whole issue. When my ancestors arrived, they just showed up at Ellis Island, filled out some paperwork, and were let in. I'd like to see some poor Mexican migrant worker show up at the border crossing and ask for the form to legally enter the USA. I wonder how long it would take for the border agents to stop laughing.
For all those people who keep saying the illegals should just follow the proper procedure, you need to realized for your "average Jose" there is no process that would allow them to enter legally.