The Wall...

Steve King thinks the best way to stop illegal immigration is to build a wall.

But it got really interesting when King broke out the mock razor-edge electrical wiring: “I also say we need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top.”

"We could also electrify this wire," King noted, "with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.”

So, Mexicans = livestock?

The Reaction...

The following are various reactions to King's "Tortilla Curtain":

Does King's "Tortilla Curtain" Remind You of the Iron Curtain or the Berlin Wall?

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev thinks so, and he should know!

"You remember President Reagan standing in Berlin and saying, 'This wall should be torn down,'" said the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "Now the United States seems to be building almost the Wall of China between itself and this other nation with which it has been associated for many decades and has had cooperation and interaction with.

"I think what is really needed are ideas and proposals about how to improve that cooperation and work out all of those issues regarding immigration flows. I don't think the U.S. is so weak and so much lacks confidence as not to be able to find a different solution."

- Mikhail Gorbachev speaking in Midland Texas, October 17, 2006

"I think the fence is least effective. But I'll build the goddamned fence if they want it."

- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by Vanity Fair, on the push by
many Republicans' to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Vatican Condemns King's Border Wall

VATICAN CITY - A senior Vatican cardinal on Tuesday [November, 2006] condemned the building of walls between countries to keep out immigrants and said Washington’s plan to build a fence on the U.S.-Mexican border was part of an "inhuman program."

Cardinal Renato Martino made his comments at a news conference presenting Pope Benedict’s message for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, in which the Pope called for more laws to help immigrants integrate.

"Speaking of borders, I must unfortunately say that in a world that greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall with joy, new walls are being built between neighborhood and neighborhood, city and city, nation and nation," said Martino, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace.

President Bush signed legislation last month approving the construction of a 700-mile fence—a move that angered Mexico’s government.

Bush defends the fence as necessary to tighten control of the border to keep criminals and terrorists out. Thousands of poor Mexicans risk their lives each year sneaking across the 2,000-mile border to seek jobs.

Asked if the U.S.-Mexican fence was the wrong thing to do, Martino said: "Yes, that’s exactly what it is."

Minutemen Fence Scam
By: John Amato

"American Patrol - Thousands of Americans have donated hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, to build a fence on the border to stop illegal aliens. One man mortgaged his home and donated $120,000 that otherwise would have gone to Disabled American Veterans. Chris Simcox continues to sell the plan as an Israeli- style fence when in fact the only thing built is a five- strand barbed wire livestock fence that a rancher says won’t keep illegals out. "I have warned from the beginning not to donate money to any such effort until the promoters produce a building permit that includes the specifications as being sold by those promoters," said Glenn Spencer of American Patrol. Spencer has property on the border in Arizona."

David Neiwert posts a long take on the internal fighting within the Minutemen:

Now, rather predictably, the same fate is befalling the Minutemen, probably the most successful immanation of the far right into the mainstream since the heyday of the Klan in the 1920s. A rift between the Minuteman Project’s cofounders, Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, has led to a split in the organization, and at the center of it is the Beltway consultancy that brought us the Terri Schiavo controversy — which, you may recall, was yet another instance of the far right invading the mainstrean... read on

Please read the article. I wonder if Sean Hannity will be highlighting this fence scam anytime soon?

More from the Texas Minutemen:

Chris Simcox, now part of the Declaration Alliance, a group linked to neocons, is now seeking $55 million to complete 70 miles of Israeli- style fence in Arizona. According to Glenn Spencer of American Patrol, Simcox’s people are now claiming that the fourteen- foot poles put up on the Ladd Ranch are "vehicle barriers." The poles, placed fifteen feet apart, are about two inches in diameter. "Those poles might stop a tricycle, but only if ridden by a two- year- old," Spencer commented.

Or perhaps UFO’s? Folks, if Texas Minutemen ever received donations equaling one-hundredth of what Chris is asking for, we could conduct border operations FOREVER.

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Currently, the border with Mexico has fencing in some areas, no fencing in other areas. Much of the border is protected by mountains, rivers and extremely harsh desert.

If we really want to stop people, the technology exists. This is what Israel is building - a security wall that will keep unwanted Palestinians out of Israel and (in theory) keep their citizens safe from terrorists.

And this is what Russia built in Berlin to stop people from jumping out from behind the iron curtain. Ugly, crude, and effective.

Is this what we want on the borders with our neighbors (and some of our biggest trading partners?)

Will "the wall" be Steve King's legacy to the world?

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When in doubt, spend taxpayer money and make up statistics

In May, 2006, King went on a five-day trip to Arizona's border with Mexico. "It was a real eye-opener," King says. "One cannot get a feel for this without going down there and being in it."

"This is my second trip down to the border but this is the one that I learned the most at..." King says.

King was the only member of congress on this trip. He even went with a "security detail" to meet with border patrol agents, some retired agents, and a group of fewer than two dozen Native Americans.

Recently, Steve King has made the dubious claim that illegal immigrants "kill 25 Americans every single day." Where did he get the statistics that prove his claim? He made it up.

So, Will the "Tortilla Curtain" Actually Work?

Experts have challenged the effectiveness of the 700-mile fence planned for the U.S.-Mexico border, citing a robust smuggling industry and statistics that show around half of all illegal immigrants simply overstayed their visas.

AP (via Yahoo!):

No amount of border security will stop illegal immigration; the reality is that roughly half the estimated 12 million undocumented foreigners in the United States entered on bona fide visas and stayed after they expired.

While the interview process for visas has become tougher, it has failed to stop these so-called “overstays” from reaching for the American dream.

If they cannot get a visa, there’s a smuggling business that moves millions of people from Mexican towns to employers throughout the United States.

The increased enforcement that began with Operation Gatekeeper in 1994—and produced the corrugated metal and chain-link fence—dramatically cut illegal border crossings in the Tijuana-San Diego area, but overall, they kept their pace. Total arrests along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico has ebbed and flowed since then but changed little: 1.3 million in 1995, compared with 1.2 million in 2005. Source.

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