One Iowa Congressman took a recent trip to the border — and not via Taco Bell either.
Congressman Steve King has just returned from 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.”
King has been advocating construction of a fence along the U.S./Mexico border, and King says the drug trade he witnessed just reaffirmed his belief that a fence is what it will take to stop the flood of immigrants crossing the border.
“This is my second trip down to the border but this is the one that I learned the most at and the one that really causes me to take a look at this and see it from a different perspective on how many people are coming across the border illegally and how many drugs are a part of that,” King says.
King was the only member of congress on this trip. He went with a “security detail” to meet with border patrol agents, some retired agents, and a group of fewer than two dozen Native Americans called the Shadow Wolves who are intercepting more drugs than the two-thousand border patrol agents in the area.
When King was at the reservation one night, the Shadow Wolves caught a gang member with 180 pounds of marijuana hidden in his pick-up.
It would appear that Congressman King actually took the time to see what needs to be seen.
King says a concrete fence must be built along the whole length of the U.S./Mexico border because his trip made him realize the number of border crossings are “far greater in number” than he thought, and the level of violence and the drug trade is much higher, too.
To those in his own Republican party who say the U.S. is not a country that builds walls but is a country that tears them down, King offers this response. “There is a 180 degree difference between a wall that’s built to keep people in, which the Berlin Wall was, and a wall that’s built to keep people out, which this would be,” King says.
“It’s entirely moral to defend yourself from people who are pouring over your borders, that don’t have respect for our sovereignty and who are brining billions of dollars of drugs into the United States.”
There’s a national wildlife refuge in the area of Arizona King visited, and he says a fence worked there to protect the endangered “lesser long-nosed bat.” That species of bat lives in only four caves in the world, one of which illegal immigrants crossing the border in Arizona used as a hiding place.
The bats left, according to King, so the National Park Service built a wrought-iron fence around the cave’s entrance. King says the winged creatures moved back in the cave once the illegal immigrants were kept out.
“A fence does work,” King says. “It worked to keep the illegals out of the bat cave.” King says he spent about two days traveling to and from Arizona and about three days along what he estimates was about 450 miles of border.
King says he went in sort of “undercover” fashion so he’d get the real story, not the sanitized version delivered to members of congress who climb into helicopters and fly over the area.
So what would work? One point? Two points? Three points?
How about THESE points?
THE BZ BORDER SOLUTION:
- Secure the southern and northern borders of the United States in any physical, logistical and human fashion necessary;
- Use ALL available INS and Border Patrol sources available and then National Guard and then strictly military forces only if necessary in terms of personnel;
- Rely on human USBP interdiction first and then construct techno-fences, with physical fences only if absolutely necessary as a last resort — physical fences are too easily breached;
- At the same time develop and implement a new national SSN card which resists theft;
- Require all states to verify each and every voter during every election to be a lawful resident;
- Require all states to comply with English-Only teaching programs;
- Require all states to audit, identify and then penalize all employers who utilize illegal immigrants in any form;
- Completely halt ALL legal immigration for the next two years, in order to digest, record and then implement the above mandates;
- Create and then share immigration databases with all affected federal, state and local agencies;
- Create a “Temporary Guest Worker Program” which allows a maximum stay of two years;
- No amnesty for anyone. PERIOD.
Without any one of the above sections in place, our country is doomed to failure.
What do YOU think?
BZ
I too have a plan.
I’ll give you amnesty. Amnesty to me means a grace period where illegals get a ride home instead of a jail stay. How long that grace period should be is negotiable. I figure it should take a couple months after the law is enacted tops to get their crap together and get the hell out of the country. After that, if you get caught, you got time to do. All that get back in time can apply for legal entry.
I’ll give you a guest worker program. Anybody who doesn’t have a criminal record and has no pregnant family members can stay and work for 6 months. If they don’t show up to report and go home at the end of that 6 months, they are subject to jail time. That means all of them. Family too. Resident aliens of course, will have different rules.
I’ll give you paths to citizenship. An honorable discharge from the US military equals US citizenship. Others can learn English; learn, respect and agree with our system of government; stay employed and stay out of trouble for a couple of years.
Now for the border, I say we stop the border crossing. I don’t care how. We have a bunch of resources and are capable of doing it. So how we do it doesn’t concern me all that much. There are a million different ways to secure that border.
I’m sure a bunch of us have plans. So may I suggest that we all send these plans to various law makers and or run for those offices ourselves? Many of these lawmakers have been there quite some time and haven’t shared any ideas about this. So, we must assume they don’t have any ideas. That should make them receptive to ours. (sarcasm completely intended)
You and bigwhitehat both have great ideas… I’m looking at this as an outsider so it may be way out there. The problem seems to be with the will of the people in charge to deal with the situation. You have to many small special interest groups influencing these people, and not enough noise from the masses. You guys have to flood them until it hurts. From here I see tons of protestors on the other side, but have seen very little in terms of protest from the American public. Your politicos don’t seem to pay attention unless it’s on the 6 o’clock news. They have to have the will, before you can give them the way. …. just my opinion.
The 1st thing you have to do is find LAWMAKERS that actually care…
The 2nd thing you have to do is find a POTUS that’s SMART enough to realize that there actually IS a problem and stop kissing Mexico’s ASS…
Monday night will be a hard stop deciding point for MANY American voters that STILL aren’t quite convinced… One BAD move and D.C. will look like ‘bed bugger central’ come January there will be so many moving vans there collecting the DREGS of Congress and the Senate…
BWH: Agreed. And we CAN do it — we just need the WILL to do so. It never has and never will be a matter of we CANNOT because we don’t have the technology, the people or the tools. We just need the WILL.
ABF: The problem with massing on the “silent population” is that the silent population has a job to attend. They are employed and have families and responsibilities and are contributing to the system. I fear the silent population WILL speak in terms of the ballot — and that will translate, on the GOP side, to NOT showing up to vote; I sense conservatives and some Republican people will express their disgust by ignoring the open polls.
TF: Your points 1 and 2 are huge. And I’m not convinced they’re present at all. And I’m further unconvinced that the GOP will retain the House and the Senate. That, perhaps, frightens me the most.
BZ
I agree with the basics and had opined on them previously here and more recently here which echoes some of BWH. For your $5 Billion dollars or so you get: an outer 10′ high barbed wire fence inset from the border itself and 10′ deep pilings, a wall set between 100′ to 150′ in from the fence, the wall itself 20′ steel reinforced concrete with 70′ pilings, the area from border to wall denuded of all trees and cover, at every 1 km or so (depeding on coverage area and visibility) a Close-in Weapons System equivalent to a Phalanx gun (concrete structure with turret), and a full suite of sensor arrays for everything the military will need to cover their new weapons testing and free-fire zone. Part of this will be geophones that will be used to make a 3D underground view so that any perturbations in the subsurface can be detected. The entire thing is remotely controlled by individuals sitting and waiting for sensors to trip. In mountainous regions a sensor and look-down, shoot-down set of weapons are envisioned.
All unauthorized personnel are shot, no questions asked. The set up has ability for river coverage of high flood areas and extends out to sea along with USCG and USN assets. Even if it costs twice as much, it is still worth it and can get the necessary manpower to operate it as low as possible as quickly as possible. Add in a few active radar and ground penetrating radar capabilities and you are good to go from 3km up to about 100m subsurface.
As software improves parts of the system might just be put on ‘automatic’. You can’t go around, under or over it without authorization. Only legal crossing points, ports of entry and coordination with the FAA is left, most likely using a transponder system to ID valid flights.
The Executive and Congress will not ever look at something like that… even after spending $100s Billions on Pork.
Then shut down all businesses actually using slave labor, which is any of them using illegal aliens. Auction off the remains of each. Strong felony charges to be brought against such business owners that ignored the Law of the Land.
Then bring the slavery zones known as ‘Sanctuary Cities’ back into the Union by shutting off EVERYTHING to them until each and every individual that lives in those communities returns to the Union swearing an Oath to the Constitution.
And most quickly: end ALL Federal subsidies to businesses, especially agriculture. Yes, with Federal money and water subsidies these wonderful crop growers are bringing people here illegally on the taxpayer dime. End it. ALL OF IT.
End NAFTA as Mexico has proven itself to not be a friend of the United States.
AJ: holy crap, sir! The CIWS is what they use on current aircraft carriers to down incoming missiles! You are one SERIOUS guy! I do, however, VERY much agree with your “Sanctuary City” plan. These areas should be held in an economic stasis or vacuum until and when they change their illegal ways.
And ending fed subsidies? YES!
And ending NAFTA? YES!
Via NAFTA, another entirely ignored illegal transportation venue is EVERY RAILROAD that crosses our southern border. That would include Union Pacific, BNSF, Kansas City Southern, CSX and Norfolk Southern. All those CONTAINERS from ships in port find themselves on what railroads call “double stack” well cars and pass readily from south to north — and so on.
BZ
The public opinion is such now that Lawmakers and a new POTUS may have to do something right about this.
Politicians only care about what they have to. Now, they have to care.
We should thank the La Raza folks. They could have wrapped those marches up in a bow for us. Now the Nation is starting to get it.
BWH: In a way, sir, you are Spot On — had it not been for those marches and demonstrations the Silent Majority may well in fact have been blissfully ignorant.
Have the Mexicans in fact awakened Yamamoto’s proverbial Sleeping Giant?
BZ
Blo, I think yours and BWH’s suggestions are right on, with a little color added from Jacksonian.
Mr. Z – When Mexican Federal Military and Police incursions are one per week, I get very serious about things. Frankly, I am tired of such and they can be greeted by 30mm autocannon fired remotely. And since you don’t need the fancy stabilization systems for the shipboard systems and have a good sensor net to precisely detect where something is moving… actually violating territorial integrity by armed police and troops is something known as an *invasion*. I prefer to discrourage such. If the President would just present the list of all known border incursions and tell the Mexican Government to stop, hand over the miscreants and make indemnity payments, I would gladly do with mere chain guns and reduce the overall price a bit.
Rebecca – I always add color. By putting a permanent solution in place the American people have lasting reminders of their stupidity. That is why I would condemn NOLA, save for the city core, and make it into a National Memorial where uninvited intruders are simply killed. We can scientifically run an experiment of ‘what happens to a modern city and suburbs when it is built on a swamp?’ and get real answers. Similarly a border wall with automated defenses, even if not necessary for some reason in 10 years would serve as a lasting reminder of the neglect We the People paid to our Nation. No mere Berlin Wall, but something to last for decades and centuries of neglect once no longer needed.
The Titanic would have survived if only the Captain had headed straight TOWARDS the iceberg. The ship was made to take that. By trying to avoid all damage, he doomed the vessel. The Ship of State can well survive what I lay out and even prosper. By trying to avoid the damage, we may lose the very State which gives us all what we need in the way of liberty.
Excusa me senor. No entiendo ingles. Puede escribe en espanol? Y, yo quiero vivar a Aztlan, America! Yo quiero su dinero, su casa y su familia. Si, tu tienne problema hablar con Senor Fox (el Presidente de Mexico) porque no est mu problema! 🙂
AJ: As a former member of the Titanic Historical Society you are correct once again: a direct hit by the RMS Titanic’s bow is thought by many current engineers and historians to be a saving move and may have resulted in the ship being damaged but not lost.
I just heard the President’s speech. Here comes a post.
BZ