Instead of building a fence, why not build a canal similar to the panama canal , but one which is large enough to handle the larger ships today.  Not only would this stop most of the illegal border crossings, but if we let china operate it as they are the old panama canal, I seriously doubt if they would allow any unauthorized entry into their area.
133098
I don't think a Canal in the U.S.-Mexican border is financially viable...Panama Canal is only 88 km long from ocean to ocean and there are already plans to expand to receive post-panamax vessels.  By the way, Chinese do not run the Panama Canal, it is run by Panamanians through the Panama Canal Authority.
107248
It only shows other countries that the USA citizens will not be pushed around. I do care about the ports. I live about ten miles from one. If terrorist drove a boat up the canal and shot a rocket they could cause catastrophic damage and hurt more people than the towers falling in NY.\n\nCan you imagine your head being blown off from 10 miles away from a chemical plant being destroyed by some terrorist.
30433
Bill Clinton essentially had nothing to do with the Panama Canal. In 1977, Jimmy Carter signed a treaty with Panama creating a timeline of handover, which was completed on January 31, 1999, while Clinton was in office. The treaty handing over the canal was signed and ratified well before Clinton even entered office, so there was nothing he could do to affect it, other than break the treaty. China was also completely uninvolved.\n\nAs for whether or not it has harmed the US, it's hard to say. Our transport ships have to pay to pass through the canal, but we gained a significant amount of international respect for pulling out of the country and it lowered the number of places our military had to keep a watch on.
489329
Fence is not the proper solution to curb immigration.  The US must give aid for development of its neighboring countries so that people will improve their standard of living in their home countries and will not come to America for greener pastures.
419635
What an excellent question.\n\nYou would think this event, since it is a kind of natural flowing, self-exiling exercise by the illegals themselves, should provide our politicians a means of regulating our border.\n\nUnfortunately this won't happen.\nMany in D.C. aren't serious about immigration control.\n\nWhat really gets me mad is that thousands of people  are trying LEGALLY to become American citizens and are stonewalled by this same bureaucracy.
326037
No, why should there be?  We've all been subjected to long lines and having our toe jam inspected for the past several years.  All the while our borders are wide open, people flowing into the country like there's no tomorrow.  Planes won't be used again, we've had the welcome mat out and an open invitation to find other means to kill thousands.
481503
They certainly can.  The real question is will they?  There will be bickering but both parties have too much to lose if they stay at each others throats all the time.  Hopefully there will be some effort to work together.\n\nI agree with what you say we need to do about illegal entry.  It's easy to figure out that we need to stop it.  It is not easy to actually do it.  We are spending millions for the fence project which will only be successful if we have enough personnel on hand to patrol it.  Of course if we had security in that kind of numbers we would not need the fence.  The problem of illegal entry goes beyond a quick fix.  Politicians that tell us that it Can be done quickly and easily are lying to us.  To address this problem we have to consider the root causes of why these people are fleeing their own country and why they are coming here.  If you do that you will realize we have to begin with the major corporations, individuals, and small companies and farms that hire them.  Until we do that the fence is just an exercise in waste and futility.
591785
BOTH borders should be CLOSED!!!! But,since the MILLIONS of ILLEGALS are sneaking across the MEXICAN border,THAT is why it is such a great concern!!!!!!!!!!
89195
How many of you out there remember this same BS when the Soviets were building the Berlin wall?  Ask the Russians and Germans how much they benefited from building their wall to keep out undesireables.  Oh wait, the Soviet Union is no more and the Germanys are back together and the wall came tumbling down.\n\nGo read some history about the great wall of China.  Why it was built and why it didn't work either.
264441
Because of 911, we need to protect ourselves.  You didn't specifiy which border, but I think all borders should be protected by troops. (...all 4)of border police.\nI like the idea someone had of helping our neighboring countries improve their livelihoods so people would prefer to  only visit us.
248126
It is going to be impossible to protect the borders. We can only put a token force there as we are busy fighting a useless war in Iraq. Rome collapsed when the governing body decided to try to legislate morality, oh we are doing that to. I wonder at my age if I can learn to speak Chinese.
425382
I hope they don't build it at all.  I'm against illegal immigration, but I think there are better ways to handle it.\n\nEnforce and update the regulations and laws that make it so appealing to cross the border illegally and then get supported by the government.... there's a start.\n\nA border fence... that will be a war zone.  I'm glad I don't live close to that.\n\nWho will be crazy enough to take a job like that?  \nMaybe illegal immigrants, but I imagine the legal ones would have NOTHING to do with THAT.  Probably more likely to be built by crazy rednecks.\n\nI♥♫→mia☼☺†
150274
You have a point.  The recent arguments about immigration have focused on the border with Mexico.  But immigration can come overland from Canada, as well.  Which means whatever security we really need at airports to prevent terrorists, we also realistically need at every part of every border.  Such a thorough system of electronic search and so on is obviously impractical.  Therefore, are we kidding ourselves that the extra manpower, expense and inconvenience at the airports is serving any useful purpose?  As the questioner points out, it probably never did make much difference, anyway; the original 9/11 gang did not come in through an airport.\n\nSo how do we combat terrorism if these measures are about guaranteed to be ineffective?  It has been said repeatedly that the intelligence community (the spies, if you will) knew a great deal about Osama bit Leaden (I don't use his real name on purpose) before 9/11/2001.  They warned their bosses, including the president, who played it his way.  You gotta wonder if he didn't like the idea of an excuse to put restrictive measures on airports and the various other compromises to our freedom we have accepted under the "homeland security" rubric.  (Love the tee shirt with a picture of several old Indian warriors!)  \n\nFolks, our borders are too long, and with modern transportation, too open to everyone and anyone, for us to even try to stem the flow.  Why not say come; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.  If you come in peace, and are willing to work hard to make your way here, come.  If you do not behave well, we will send you home.
402811
My best guess would be that Canada and Mexico at least will listen, rather than dictate. Wasn't a bad question until you added the last part, bigger fences don't make for better neighbours, the Canada/U.S. border has been an example for the rest of the world to strive for. The Mexico/U.S. border could be as well if current laws were enforced. 'Nuff said
220386
Well, no... but to be honest the Republicans aren't spending the money to build a large wall to keep Mexicans out because they really believe it will do any good.\n\nThey are making a large fuss and show out of doing it because illegal immigration is a major concern for many Americans, and by taking a symbolic stand against it, however foolish, futile, or useless it may be, they hope to resonate with voters and re-capture a rapidly disintegrating base on an issue they might still be seen as not having completely and utterly screwed up.\n\nRepublicans, and indeed, politicians in general don't do more than they have to secure ports of call because in a country the size of America it's unrealistic to think you can.  There are too many ships, too many people, and far too many packages to do any more than just random inspections or investigate openly suspicious activity.\n\nCan things be smuggled into our country through our ports?  You betcha.  Can they be smuggled in through our borders?  Yup.\n\nCould we bust our butts trying to secure them?  Sure we could.  We could do a halfway decent job at the authorized checkpoints, too... but then it would dawn on a terrorist with money that there are a lot of private docks and moorages in this country, especially for the wealthy who live along the coast.  \n\nIf you have one wealthy individual with his own yacht and a moorage at his estate, all they have to do is sail it out into international waters (which isn't hard since that's ten miles out from our coast... or about an hour's leisurely cruise, and those are very common in yachts), pick up what you want to smuggle in, and sail right back to their estate.  Chances are even if the Coast Guard is on patrol, they won't be caught.  You could also do it with smaller boats dispatched from ships sailing in international waters which land at a pre-arranged stretch of coastline that no one uses, etc... etc... etc...\n\nThis, unfortunately, is a game of cat and mouse where the mouse has a definite advantage.  For everything we can think of to stop an attack, someone else can think of another way to start one.
330926
I think this also brings aout the topic of border security.  we need responsible people to check and double check that noone or terrorist for that matter brings in any illegal junk.  Imagine what would happen if word got out to other countries that its very easy to smuggle in weapons, drugs etc?
522555
There probably is no reason.  How many would drive from North America to South America to begin with?  You might find some (most people fly), but probably not enough to make the whole thing economically feasible to begin with.  \n\nThe reason a country, such as Panama, wouldn't build it is because they see no reason for building it.  They are going to be concerned with roads they need to serve the people who live there and pay the taxes, not people from other countries who only want to pass through.