I <3 Good Public Policy

Today the Senate is voting on a piece of legislation that has already passed the House of Representatives two times. This means, for those of you who weren't government majors and who slept through civics, that it is this vote and a signature by the President of the United States away from becoming law.

I wish I could inform you that what they are voting on is a comprehensive bill addressing immigration in the United States, but that would be a lie. What they are voting on is a proposal to spend several years and several billion dollars building a 700 mile extension on the fence that currently separates the U.S. from Mexico. If you want to see the specifics of the bill you can do so by heading to http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/issues/bills/?billtype=H.R.&billnumb=6061&congress=109. By now I hope you've figured out that I think this is a bad idea. To get a sense of why let's start by taking a step back and looking at some history.

Prior to the early 1990's the U.S./Mexican border had almost always been a pretty fluid place. Workers, especially seasonal migrants who would work in agriculture, passed easily from one country to the next. No one considered a secure border to be either a possibility or a necessity. It was in El Paso, Texas that this started to change.

It used to be that the border patrol would deport people back to their country of origin when they were found to be in the country illegally. What happened in El Paso during the early 1990's was that they decided to shift their policy to something that they named Operation Gate Keeper. The premise of Operation Gate Keeper was simple. The border patrol in El Paso knew that it would be impossible for them to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States entirely, but they figured that it would be possible to do it in El Paso.

To accomplish this they set up what was basically a goal line defense in football. Agents would station themselves along the border facing Mexico, each vehicle being responsible for making sure that no one crossed between themselves and the next vehicle. Not surprisingly, this policy actually worked. People in El Paso were ecstatic that they no longer had immigrants running through their back yards at all hours of the day and night.

Not surprisingly, after Operation Gate Keeper was established in El Paso, and later in San Diego, it did not stem the tide of immigration, it simply diverted it to other places. One of those places was right here in Aqua Prieta/Douglas. The tragedy of Operation Gate Keeper in this place, and in many others, is that by cutting off the safer routes of travel through towns and ranches it pushes people further out into the wilderness where they try to cross in areas like deserts and rivers, often with lethal consequences. Making it harder to cross the border in one place doesn't stop people from crossing, it just makes it much more difficult to do so, and much more lethal.

And this is why a 700 mile extension won't work. 700 miles is nowhere close to the amount of fencing you would need to completely secure the border (something I don't believe is possible with any amount of fence, but more on that later). 700 miles is enough to stop people from crossing in habitated areas, and this is a big problem. The more remote the crossing place, the greater the risk of injury or death to the migrant.

In addition to this problem, this legislation further promotes a public policy that is both morally and practically bankrupt. Not only will it increase the number of dead immigrants, it will also fail to solve the immigration "crisis." It will not make America "safer," and it will not address the economic realities that bring people to this country. Instead it will waste several years, several billion dollars, and many lives.

I pray that tomorrow the Senate rejects this bill, and if they do not, that the President does not sign it. I fear that if it passes we will find ourselves a few years from now building yet another fence, desperately trying to keep people out.