Funny. The popup in the bottom right of the picture says 'Report a Problem'.

You're right. It does. Good call. I missed that.

Israel built 2 fences.

Terrorist problem go poof - and they have a heckuva lot less money than we do.

Maybe we should subcontract the construction problem to them.

Have this a federal security issue and let the legions rotate through with the sentry duties - thus ending any corruption issue.

It can be done. It really must be done.

Simple math

Just imagine the stimulus of building an actual wall. A lot of out of work construction workers would be happy.

A lot of out of work construction workers would be happy.

Especially the undocumented ones who would gladly build it for less.

Why don't we build a road parallel to the border as well, and station officers with M-16s every 50 yards? Roughly 1,900 miles of border, 25 people per mile, less the impassable areas and already covered crossings, let's say 35,000 people on duty at any given time (3 shifts plus back-ups replacements, on leave, sick = 140,000. Every few miles, a tower complete with telescopic infrared cameras, etc.; let's say 500 of these. Costs:

$400x140,000 pay, benefits, uniforms, coffee per day=round to $21 billion/year

500 25-foot concrete towers w/equipment@$2 million each=$1 billion

1,000 (Ford) SUVs@$40,000=$40 million

Weapons, ammo, training, gas, bureaucrats, +/- $5 billion.

Road, at $1 million/milex1,500 miles=$1.5 billion

Total, $25-30 billion per year, max.

Illegal crossings--nearly zero. Heroin, coke, etc. etc., nearly zero.

Current Border Patrol budget, on the close order of $13 billion (includes Canada).

Total cost of illegal immigration? Who knows, but some multiple of the $12-20 billion additional dollars per year it would cost to really seal the border.

We have the money and the technology. All it would take is the will. One suspects that there are a number of forces who not only lack that will but profit from the current situation.

I would appreciate any critique of my figures or reasoning.

Does anyone think they can stop this Volkerwanderung? I don't, even though I (maybe) wish we could. I say 'we' even though I'm Canadian. Illegal Mexicans in Canada? Oh yes, plenty of them.

I have 2 formerly illegal ones as tenants. Best tenants I ever had.

Better read some history.

Too many Romans liked having lots of illegal barbarians around. Too many of us in what's left of 'Western Civilization' do too.

Can any of us point to our civilizations, replete with massive quasi infanticide and other moral degradations, ill disciplined socialist kleptocrat swine running the politics, and not conclude that maybe some fresh barbarian blood is needed?

I dunno. I like my Mexicans.

"Especially the undocumented ones who would gladly build it for less."

But we all pay for it heavily in other financial ways. Our entitlements are getting stretched very thin.

Illegal-Aliens are treated like second class citizens - especially since they are illegal. That is not the American way. We do not want a 2 tiered society.

They either become legal citizens and go through the lawful channels for benefits as impoverished people or they should go home. If we need more low income laborers, there are many, many unemployed in the construction sector of industry.

As a man said, since the dogmas of a quiet past are not working for the stormy present,we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

But we must act. There is much we can do at the border that is not attempted only because it has never been attempted, and because many do not want this invasion ended. They do not want ideas that work; if pushed, they would rather expand old ideas that do not work.

Robert, your reasoning is spot on, especially "All it would take is the will".

I don't think that's there.

Everyone knows American laws, procedures and personnel for fully legal immigration are disgusting, foul, nonsense whose only function is to benefit civil servants, that all potential legal immigrants are treated like shit, tormented, fee-ed to death and delayed for years, and people feel naturally sorry for most of the hard working refugees who break the rules. They know what bullshit the rules are. They fight contemptible bureaucracies every day.

Who do you hate more, the illegal Mexican doing the plumbing in your basement, good work, fair price or that IRS asshole with the attitude, you know the one who thinks expenses for routine things like 'cement' in your construction business are not allowable, because he's so goddam dumb and arrogant he understands nothing about it and thinks it's paper glue? [I am NOT making that up] Or the fat-assed lazy DMV clerk doing her job like a constipated hippo? Or the teacher who sent your kid home with 3 day suspension for having a plastic fork in her lunch pack in a 'zero tolerance for weapons' school?

Me, I'll still take the Mexicans.

james wilson, you say "As our case is new, we must think and act anew."

So sorry, but you err gravely. This 'case' has happened many times in the past. The USA will fail utterly to deal properly with the problems if people refuse to study the past.

So far as I can see there is absolutely no real difference between this mass migration of Latinos into North America and the mass migration of the Germans into greater Rome, including even loony ideas of reconquista, excepting possibly the tribal nature of the German swarm.

For 2 billion a year we can patrol the border with troops and close it off pretty tight.

One Light Infantry Regiment supplied with 80 helos and support can do it. This would be two layers of roving patrols about 5 miles apart. Back them up with UAVs.

Let's re-activate the 7th Infantry Division and get them on the ground.

I dont understand why we don't just dig a canel
between mexico and the US.
Would be profitable to both countries and would
stop migration.

We must secure,patrol and fence the border. And here is how to pay for it;create and use E-verify system and impose a 10 cents on the dollar tax on all "guest" workers. Use these funds to pay,and or reimburse,states for the expense of dealing with fences,security and deportation costs (as well as the cost to house the criminal aliens in our jails and prisons).Also, we should add a week onto military service,for the active reserves,and have them assist in border security and structure.

For 2 billion a year we can patrol the border with troops and close it off pretty tight. One Light Infantry Regiment supplied with 80 helos and support can do it. This would be two layers of roving patrols about 5 miles apart. Back them up with UAVs. Let's re-activate the 7th Infantry Division and get them on the ground.