Minutemen to Bush: Build a fence, or we will!

Members of the border-watch group the Minutemen have delivered an ultimatum to President Bush: start to take some action to prevent illegal immigration from the south, or they will!

The ultimatum requested military presence on the Arizona border by May 25, or else the group will break ground to begin construction of a deterrent fence on Memorial Day weekend.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox has a message for President Bush: Build new security fencing along the border with Mexico or private citizens will.

Simcox said Wednesday that he's sending an ultimatum to the president, through the media, of course _ "You can't get through to the president any other way" _ to deploy military reserves and the National Guard to the Arizona border by May 25.

Or, Simcox said, by the Memorial Day weekend Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers and supporters will break ground to start erecting fencing privately.
www.chron.com...

The gov't has estimated that it would cost billions and billions to build a fence, but the Minutemen estimate that they can do an effective job for $125 -$150 a foot.

Given the foot-dragging that this and past administrations have done on this critical issue, I applaud the efforts of the Minutemen. At least they are doing more than paying lip service to this problem.

No replies? Wow, amazed. Good for these guys! What kind of wall though? A fence? Brick? Concrete?

Nice to see someone cares about this country, the guys in the Whitehouse don't.

The fence is nothing fancy...a six foot deep trench to keep vehicles from bsting through, followed by razor wire, then an outward facing mesh fence. more razor wire, a road for surveillance. It's laid out in the article. Not fancy, but effective.

The lack of responses may be due to the forum this is posted in. I probably made a bad choice there.

Interesting stuff. Of course this group is going to run head-first into the Bush agenda. They are not, I predict, going to have an easy time of it.

There's a lot the government could do to stem illegal immigration short of building a wall, that it's not doing. Winks and nods, sporadic enforcement at best, and a whole lot of confusion as to who should be supporting what consistent with their political philosophies. The blindest people IMO being liberals who support the "rights" of illegals, while failing to see the larger picture and how tolerance of illegal immigrants furthers conservative, not liberal causes, and how all of this is part and parcel of a system that keeps Hispanic peoples in Latin America in grinding poverty for the sake of the profits of a very few, both there and here.

Who benefits from tolerating illegal immigrants? Follow the money. Businesses that employ these people under the table dirt-cheap, that's who. Sure, if they get caught they may pay a bit of a fine now and then. So what? The cost is trivial compared to the savings in wages, and that's just the immediate benefit. The fact that the lowest tier of jobs in our economy is so dramatically underpaid ripples through all of the other jobs available. If those jobs had to be filled by U.S. citizens or legal residents, and paid minimum wage or better, the available labor pool for other jobs would shrink, driving wages up across the board.

This is very similar to the "free trade" pacts we have with Latin American nations that encourage U.S. manufacturers to build plants there -- where corrupt governments deny workers basic rights and keep wages ridiculously low -- instead of here. That balloons the labor pool available for all other work in the U.S., such as service work that can't easily be exported because it requires people fluent in English and familiar with American culture, and so depresses those wages as well.

Keeping the labor pool as large and as oppressed as possible is the name of the game here. And the powers behind it are the very ones that own the Bush administration lock, stock and barrel. So whatever rhetoric Bush may spout about curbing illegal immigration, we can count on his administration to DO precisely nothing.

The Minutemen have a legitimate grievance here, for sure. But get action from the president? Don't hold your breath, folks!

Who benefits from tolerating illegal immigrants? Follow the money. Businesses that employ these people under the table dirt-cheap, that's who. Sure, if they get caught they may pay a bit of a fine now and then. So what? The cost is trivial compared to the savings in wages, and that's just the immediate benefit.

Very true but if the politicians had any stones they could make it painful. Say $10K per illegal per infraction. That's the only way you're going to get those guys' attention.

But right now, it's just lip service because there are elections coming up in November. After that, the issue will go back into committee for "further study".