OPINION:
Is there is a border crisis? Who are we to believe — politicians or our own eyes? Our neighbor lost two children to the fentanyl that comes through the southern border. Drugs, gangs, potential terrorists and human traffickers penetrate the border as easily as do families. Our inability to screen immigrants also exposes us to pathogens like tuberculosis. The porosity of the border is confirmed by felons who have been deported multiple times. Yet another “caravan” is forming, and identifying vests worn by its spokesmen prove it to be an organized, not a spontaneous event. Yes, there is a crisis.
The assertion that “walls don’t work” is irrational. TSA uses walls to funnel passengers through magnetometers. Magnetometers (and screeners to man them) are expensive. By comparison, walls are cheap. Controlling the border with sensors and drones would require a 24-hour “quick reaction” force to respond to crossings along hundreds of miles of border. That force would increase required manpower tenfold compared to using the “walls and ports of entry” model. Hungary and other European countries are building walls today. The wall in Israel has reduced terrorism by over 99 percent. Most tellingly, Jordan began building a border wall with Syria in 2009.If “walls don’t work,” why did the Obama administration and Congress appropriate money to assist that effort?
Yes, Congress must be fiscally responsible. But given the situation at the border, it is specious to argue that $5.7 billion for the wall (0.15 percent of the federal budget) is unjustified.
CHIP DRURY
Alexandria, Va.
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