Riding the border fence

Thinking about thinking

The headline reading “‘Virtual fence’OK’d for U.S.-Mexico border” caught my attention on Feb.22 as I browsed CNN.com. Only halfway through the article, I self-consciously laughed aloud. Oddly enough, I could not help recalling my summers at camp.
Every year I looked forward to our camp wide capture the flag tournament. Hundreds of 12 year olds decked out in camouflage and sneakers. This was a serious endeavor. I relish the memories of my entire cabin being led, by a more adventurous counselor, through 500 yards of knee-deep muddy creek water. We were skirting around enemy lines. It was fantastic.
I largely keep these childhood memories of glory and defeat stored away in the rusty corners of my mind along with jars of fire flies and grape twin-pops. Upon reading this immigration article however, nostalgia emerged in a very unfamiliar guise.
“On February 13, an officer…noticed a group of about 100 people gathered at the border.” As a serious camper, I immediately recognized this tactic. ‘Everyone together! If we make a run for it all at once, they’ll never be able to catch us all.’ And sure enough, “Border Control caught 38 of the 100 people who tried to cross illegally, and the others went back into Mexico.”
Real people are attempting to cross the American border illegally. Border guards pursue and tag them out. This is not a silly back-yard game, this is happening every day. In my central Pennsylvanian bubble that reality is incomprehensible.
The solution however, is even more difficult to swallow. ‘We’ll build a fence!’ Maybe it is my naïve idealistic thinking, but this must be a joke. Perhaps there is also a specialized department procuring alligators for the moat. Granted this fence is not a medieval stone wall. No, this is the 21st century! This is the age of technology!
This is a ‘virtual fence’ equipped with “radar, sensor devices and cameras capable of distinguishing people from cattle at a distance of about 10 miles.” Apparently, the border patrol has accidentally arrested numerous herds of cattle. The age of technology, indeed.
Satellite feeds, wireless communication dispatch units, laser beams, space-age microscopic doohickeys, heat sensing infra-red, but it is still a fence. We have not progressed as far as some would like to think. This “solution” is only America’s thumb in the levy.
Why do we insist on wasting time and money on a temporary solution? The United States Government made a $20 million contract for the 28 mile ‘virtual fence.’ This follows the 2006 bill appropriating $1.2 billion to build a 700 mile fence. The border is nearly 2000 miles long.
The fence is an expensive and ineffective solution treating the very end of a long chain of problems. These funds can be put to better use. Immigrants do not enter the United States with the intention of harm. Why does the public fear infiltration? Is this racism or just ignorance?
To argue that immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans is misguided. American companies are increasingly sending work out of the country and illegal immigrants are working in the lowest of positions. Innocent people crossing the border in hopes of a better life are not to blame.
Illegal immigration and drug trafficking are still problems. Though, the ‘Fence Solution’ unconvincingly treats the physical act of crossing the border as if it were the true problem. I am truly surprised this mentality is so popular. Building a fence is only a deceptive last attempt; like using a thimble to bail water from a sinking ship.
If an individual really desires to ‘invade’ the United States, to work illegally or traffic drugs, they will find a way. A fence may temporarily slow these activities, but it does nothing to treat their causes. Why not allot money to the research and treatment of the real problems?
Immigrants would not illegally cross the border if situations in their own country were not so desperate or if legal immigration were a possibility. Drugs would not be trafficked into the United States if there were no market.
This is a half-hearted solution to real problems that are much deeper than just unwanted individuals crossing borders. This is not a game. Border control is a complicated problem. However, the true problems begin long before someone steps across a conceptual line in the sand. Building a fence is only the façade of protection and action.

*Ryan Hamilton
Juniatian - March 20, 2008