Sister Mary Katherine

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
These are the most famous of Ronald Reagan’s remarks at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987. Now, more than two decades later, these words need to be repeated, not to the Soviet Union but to the United States Congress regarding the Secure Fence Act.

On Oct 26, 2006, the Secure Fence Act was enacted by Congress to try “to establish operational control over the international land and maritime borders of the United States.” Hardly a fence, the border wall fails to decrease the number of immigrants who are in the United States illegally, according to a report commissioned by Congress.

We need to cease this $46 billion security blanket that has failed to gain control of the border, or, lets be honest, take attention away the failures in Iraq. Now, with Bush out of office, and the wall continuing to use up taxpayer dollars, congress needs to reconsider building this not-so-white picket fence.

The idea of throwing a wall up between two countries, which is what it sounds like to those who don’t have the time to read the whole bill, is an unintelligent solution that presents the USA as scared and irrational. It is a simple-minded answer that doesn’t fix the problem.

This new wall is blazing through communities, creating division and impacts on the culture and environment of border towns. According to the CRS Report for Congress, updated in June 2007, the border fence has had little impact on overall apprehensions in California and Arizona, where the largest stretch of fence has been completed.

Yesterday, KGVR, a local TV station, reports stated that the border wall will cut off water pumping stations along the Rio Grande valley. This is just one of many changes to which the wall is forcing border town communities to adhere.

There does seem to be some positive impact to the border fence. On Oct. 15, 2008 the U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector reported that agents were able to save 443 illegal aliens from possible death after being abandoned by their smugglers, during fiscal year 2008, while reducing the number of deaths by 17 percent from 202 in fiscal year 2007 to 167 in fiscal year 2008. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem like the initiative is designed to save lives.
While US Border patrol stand around talking on their cell phones, munching snacks and hoping to catch at least a few migrant workers in action, US tax dollars are being wasted.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, after visiting Brownsville in May 2008 to investigate the fence, estimates that the costs of building and maintaining the fence could prove astronomical, ranging "from $300 million to $1.7 billion per mile, depending on materials."

A 700-mile wall at $3 billion (which is the lowest price estimate) per mile adds up to $2.1 billion. This money, which is not delivering an answer to the problem of illegal immigration, should be used to pay off federal debt or help fund President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.