January
12, 2006
Shall We Build a
Wall?
By Jack D. McNamara
President George W.
Bush last week rather tardily summoned the wise
elders of past administrations for a sit-down at the White House. There
they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of disasters past and
present for about an hour.
The subject last week was of course Iraq. The Bush Administration has
refused to consult with defense and foreign policy veterans and demands
recognition that the current bungling is of their own making.
Nevertheless, the old draught horses participated in the public
relations exercise and in the pinch mostly supported President Bush —
with faint praise.
Former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown in the Carter Administration
said afterwards, “there is a fairly broad consensus … we have to make
it work as far as we can,” (Washington Post online January 6).
While the President, Secretary of State C. Rice and Secretary of
Defense D. Rumsfeld were pushing cookies and tea in Washington,
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was on a tour of the
U.S.-Mexico border. Traveling to Laredo the same day, he announced his
new initiative to curb illegal immigration and increase border
security. According to the San Antonio Express online the high points
include: 1700 new Border Patrol
officers; unmanned drone aircraft;
ending “catch and release”; and “increase investigations of U.S.
employers that hire undocumented workers,” (our emphasis).
The following day, in
Laredo, the security czar proclaimed that border
operations will be expanded through “integration of federal, state and
local forces.”
Secretary Chertoff promised $400 million in federal money for
“Operation Stonegarden II” grants. These are stepped up law enforcement
sweeps intended to provide full employment for lawyers. As the San
Antonio Express online explained, this program would be directed by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That agency is now led by a
young woman of 36 years appointed during the recess, Julie Myers.
“Recess” means she skipped confirmation by the U.S. Senate. She is an
attorney who “briefly” worked for Chertoff. Her husband is currently
Chertoff’s chief of staff, and her uncle is former Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, USAF, retired.
Of rather more interest to us here is the “integration” of law
enforcement agencies. Our most consistent accounting of law enforcement
agencies here is about two dozen on any given day. In the past there
have been as many problems with too many police from
too many agencies as too few. The scene at the Marfa city limits a few
years ago as the pursuit of a fleeing criminal ended with his death by
a gunshot from a Marfa officer comes to mind. Hot to the scene, the
Alpine Chief of Police John H. Ellen, Jr. rammed Brewster County
Sheriff Jack McDaniel’s auto. Does Secretary Chertoff really intend to
take responsibility for the Alpine Police Department?
But
the grandest of the border security initiatives was not mentioned
by Secretary Chertoff. We refer of course to the proposed wall along
the entire border from San Diego to Brownsville.
Actually the House border bill neither funds nor proposes an entire
wall of 2000 miles, only 700 miles right now (!) And those sections to
be walled are notably the most heavily trafficked by illegal entrants.
One section is proposed for the El Paso area all the way across the New
Mexico segment of the border. Other segments of wall would fence
Nogales, Arizona; Brownsville, Texas and of course Laredo, where
Secretary Chertoff announced his new initiatives.
Secretary Chertoff did NOT announce any support for the wall but
neither did he announce support for the guest worker program proposed
by the President.
Polls now rolling in
indicate significant Hispanic opposition to the
House of Representatives proposal and Hispanics are the fastest growing
part of the U.S. population. But such a wall, once described as “The
Tortilla Curtain,” remains a possibility. Israel is building a wall to
separate themselves from the Palestinians.
Might we build a wall along the southern border of the Big Bend? Most
of the terrain is too forbidding to build much of anything. Only
those areas long inhabited, such as Redford and Presidio, invite wall
building.
One interesting location would be Lajitas. Does one build a double
fence along the banks of the Rio Grande? Wouldn’t that affect the views
of the tourists and split the golf course? Or would the fence parallel
the new “Bonilla Bypass” million dollar earmark road improvement of FM
170? Would we fence in
the Ultimate Hideout development of Steven Smith
or would we fence it out?
History
is littered with walls. Roman Emperor Hadrian’s wall was
intended to keep the Scots out of England because they painted
themselves blue and practiced poor personal hygiene. The Chinese built
a Great Wall and it indeed does serve their new tourist business. The
French built a wall to keep the Germans out and it succeeded, except
the Germans went around it. The Germans then built an Atlantic wall and
the U.S. Army went through it. One of the participants at the White
House meeting last week, Robert S. McNamara, proposed a wall in the
Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam. It didn’t work either (and no, we are in
no way related to the former Secretary of Defense).
Walls don’t work unless they are guarded. Like in prisons. If we build
a wall, a Tortilla Curtain, we ought to be thinking what to do with it
when it doesn’t work. Perhaps a prison? If the proposed wall doesn’t
work to keep people out, perhaps it will work to keep us in.
Big Bend Gulag … Build it and they will come. •
(Also published by the Big Bend
Sentinel of Marfa, Texas January 12, 2006.)
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