Border Fence
Only One Piece of a Defensive System
By D.W.

The congressional approval of a 700 mile fence along the U.S. - Mexican border has caused both relief and angst throughout the nation. Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the border fence is a long overdue feature of a border defensive system. Critics of the fence cite that it will not stop all illegal crossings and they are right, but they are missing the point.

The fence doesn’t have to stop everyone to be successful as the fence is not the only obstacle to illegal crossings. The fence in combination with increased patrols, electronic sensors, and legal measures will create an effective deterrent to smuggling and illegal immigration.

Today, the U.S. - Mexico border is so extremely easy to cross at so many points that it almost requires no effort for illegal aliens and smugglers to simply walk or drive across. The current system is simply so weak that it provides a nearly nonexistent amount of difficulty and deterrence for illegal crossers. A fence will change that because illegal immigrants will now have to plan out a successful crossing and they will have to assume a much greater risk of getting caught when they do. And while illegal aliens are overcoming the obstacles presented by the fence, other parts of the system will be activated to respond.

For instance, if the fence is armed with cameras and sensors that set off a warning when it is being breached, alerts will be sent out to patrols who will respond to the exact area. The fence is actually a series of fences and anti-vehicle ditches, which will take more than a few minutes overcome. It will provide the Border Patrol with concrete intelligence about exactly where to interdict infiltrators. Destroying a part of the fence will also give immigration authorities another criminal charge to stick on the illegal aliens besides illegal entry.

And the border fence isn’t your ordinary five foot chain link fence you might find in a backyard. It is a series of formidable barriers. It also employs ditches which prevent big vehicles from just plowing through it. The fences themselves are designed to make climbing over them pretty difficult.

Perhaps more importantly, the border fence will deter the weak of heart.

The garden variety illegal immigrant crossing on their own without professional help will be deterred by the barrier; this has been proven in areas where a fence currently exists. Now why would we want to build a barrier that deters the ordinary illegal alien who just wants a farm job and doesn’t pose a threat but wouldn’t deter hardened criminals?

The Border Patrol only has a finite number of resources with which they can pursue illegal aliens. For the most part, it is difficult to tell from afar which groups are smuggling drugs or are terrorists and violent thugs from the ones who are just farm workers. If there are more illegal immigrants in an area than resources to catch them, then some will get through. With the deterrence of the weak of heart, there will be a reduction in the overall amount of traffic. This allows the Border Patrol to economize their forces more effectively.

Let’s say a certain ten mile stretch of border land has 100 illegal aliens crossing a day before the fence and only five agents at any one time on duty. Those five agents obviously can’t catch everyone so let’s be modest and say that they only catch ten. Then up goes the fence and the traffic decreases by only 25 people a day. Well now those five agents are still only interdicting ten people a day, but it is now a higher percentage of daily crossings.

Now I am going to compare the border fence to the Korean DMZ because it is a useful analogy. I am not advocating that we militarize the U.S. - Mexican border and emplace mines and booby traps. I am merely demonstrating how complex obstacles work as part of an overall defensive strategy.

The demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea is the most heavily defended and militarized place on the planet. It has untold millions of land mines, booby traps, and obstacles of all sorts to make crossing the DMZ extremely dangerous. Yet, every year North Korean troops infiltrate in small groups to the South through the DMZ. Does this mean that the South’s defenses are worthless? Of course not, because these obstacles are only a part of a defensive system and not the system itself.

Military planners know that any man made obstacle can be overcome with enough time and effort and the Korean DMZ is no exception. But the DMZ’s obstacles do not need to provide a foolproof deterrent to keep Northern troops out to be effective. Northern troops crossing en masse across the DMZ will be slowed down tremendously by the obstacles. Some will be outright killed by the mines but more will be killed in the process of breaching minefields than by the mines themselves. Southern troops watching these minefields will be shooting at the Communist troops while they are negotiating these obstacles.

By the time North Korean troops cross the DMZ in any meaningful numbers, they will have suffered a very heavy casualty toll and the South will have slowed them down long enough to mobilize reserve troops. The obstacles along the DMZ will have been effective even though they were breached.

On the U.S. - Mexican border, a fence system will have the same effect.

And just because someone tunneled under it doesn’t make it worthless. If the border fence forces a drug smuggler to dig a tunnel then the fence was successful. Tunneling is an expensive, dangerous, and difficult activity as you can’t just tunnel anywhere; only certain areas of land will support a good tunnel. And tunneling is far more complicated than one might think, especially when you need to move bulky cargo clandestinely.

Furthermore, with the right surveillance methods and equipment, it can be detected. Digging a tunnel is an activity that requires logistics and good intelligence can spot tunneling efforts by looking for indicators like digging equipment.

Making drug trafficking more difficult through a comprehensive defense system will decrease the volume of narcotics coming across the border. Lower volume coupled with higher support costs will increases the price for the junkie and reduce profits from volume sales. Overall, this has reciprocal effects for the drug cartels because their efforts are less likely to reap the same profits. With fewer financial resources, the cartels will weaken and soon have to face more violence from competition. Anything that weakens your enemy makes your chances of victory better.

The border fence is not a magic panacea that will solve all of our border issues but it doesn’t have to be. Some smart people will always find ways to cross our borders no matter how tight they are and we just have to accept that. However, this is no excuse for not trying to stop people en masse from crossing at all. The fact of the matter is that we can stop most illegal crossings and for the sake of our security we need to do this.

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