Defending the border, wherever it is

[Lobster Martini]

(Alternate title: The Onion Farm Cattle Ranch War)

George W. Bush, October 2006: "It's what the people in this country want...they want to know that we are modernizing the border so we can better secure the border."

Perhaps one small step towards modernizing the border might be to find out where it is.

From AP:

U.S. border fence protrudes into Mexico

The 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil.

Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix.

The barrier was part of more than 15 miles of border fence built in 2000, stretching from the town of Columbus to an onion farm and cattle ranch.

<snip>

James Johnson, whose onion farm is in the disputed area, said he thinks his forefathers may have started the confusion in the 19th century by placing a barbed-wire fence south of the border. No one discovered their error, and crews erecting the barrier may have used that fence as a guideline.

"It was a mistake made in the 1800s," Johnson said. "It is very difficult to make a straight line between two points in rugged and mountainous areas that are about two miles apart."

The Mexican government was notified and did what any landowner would do: They sent a note politely insisting that Mexico get its land back.

"Our country will continue insisting for the removal (of the fence) to be done as quickly as possible," the Foreign Relations Department said in a diplomatic missive to Washington.

When the barrier was built in 2000, the project was believed to cost about $500,000 a mile. Estimates to uproot and replace it range from $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

<snip>

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070629/ap_on_re_us/misplaced_barrier)

[soothsayer]

1. The Rio Grande defines part of the border, and it MOVES all the time.

Sometimes Mexico's a little larger and the US is a little smaller, and sometimes it's the other way. I always ask HOW are they going to build a fence on a river that changes its mind about where the border is? Will we have to pay Mexico $3M everytime it changes its course?