Bordering on Limbo

By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.

FrontPageMagazine.com | 12/20/2007

The Secure Fence Act of 2006 has a life of confusion and limited effectiveness all its own. On October 4 and December 7, 2006, again on April 5, 2007, texts following, this writer addressed the meandering legal fate of the Mexican Border fence.

The basic rationale from the inception has been, and remains, that fencing, if effectively constructed and supported by adequate border patrol, very substantially would minimize the number of prospective immigrants unlawfully crossing into the United States. It also greatly would reduce the extensive criminal violence endangering the life and property of American citizens (and of lawful and unlawful immigrants) in southern and somewhat southern Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas - and, more indirectly, throughout our country.

The 110th Congress, 1st Session, is to adjourn two days hence, amid unprecedented internal Congressional confusion and possibly unprecedented internal ill will. In that context, it further has complicated the issue of the efficacy of Mexican Border fencing.

In August 2007, the George W. Bush administration, through Secretaries Michael Chertoff, of the Department of Home Security, and Carlos Gutierrez, of the Department of Commerce, announced a 28-point program to improve border security and other immigration matters, the first six points relating to border security. Specifically, the administration instituted an attempt, for December 31, 2008, completion, to add 18,300 Border Patrol agents; to build 370 miles of fencing, 300 miles of vehicle barriers, 105 camera and radar towers and to add three additional UAVs.