Arizona Daily Star on border fencing....It Won't Work

[tpsbmam]

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/146870

Think our lamebrains in Washington put in even half of this effort?

<snip>

The Star sent a six-member reporting team on a three-week trek from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico this summer to investigate whether the border can be sealed, and what the effects would be. They interviewed more than 200 people who live or work on the border, study it, cross it or patrol it, and experts in economics, politics and migration. They found:
● Jagged mountains, deep canyons and winding rivers preclude a continuous wall.
● Fences and other technology would cost $2 billion to $5 billion or more. And longer wait times to cross would cost border businesses at least $1 billion a year.
● It would take at least 100,000 agents — 10 times today's number — to patrol the border the way San Diego and El Paso agents did when they brought traffic to a trickle in their sectors in the late 1990s.
● Fences, access roads and vehicle traffic would threaten wildlife habitat and biological diversity, perhaps doing more damage than illegal entrants already cause.
Even overcoming all these obstacles won't solve the problem, the Star investigation concluded.