Yesterday, President Biden appealed the to U.S Supreme Court to allow the U.S. Border patrol to remove razor wire, placed by the State of Texas, along the banks of the Rio Grande River.
Razor wire is a military tool intended to entangle, cut and injure anyone who touches it. It is not the same as barbed wire and is not used to contain livestock because it can cause serious injury.
We have a serious problem with uncontrolled immigration at the southern boarder and I am sympathetic with the border states. who are forced to accept large numbers of immigrants. I have some ideas how to address this problem. However I cannot abide cruelty and razor wire is cruelty.
I hope our Supreme Court can see this. I’m surprised lower courts have apparently allowed it.
I agree that while we urgently need to tighten our borders, cruelty is unacceptable.
I think the razor wire would be considered cruel if the refugees were being forced to climb it or pushed into it. If the country is trying to control the flow of illegals then it seems like it is a successful deterrent? A wall would be a good deterrent, but some still consider it cruel, and it was ordered down. I think the reasons why some want illegals free access to our country and services are deeper than many realize, but I really don’t know much about razor wire or all of the issues forcing people to leave their home countries, which we are probably ill-equipped to fix, because we cannot even fix them here – in some cases because we have so many illegals demanding our services, changing our economy, politics, and in even our culture.
Hi Janet,
I’m going to respond to your thoughts about razor wire and the “wall” and leave the economic and political issues to a later discussion.
The “wall” is more accurately a tall fence and I prefer to call it the “”border” fence. The Border Patrol wanted to be able to see what was happening on the Mexican side so the most recent is constructed of vertical sections of formed steel about 20 feet tall. Determined refugees do attempt to climb over, tunnel under or even cut through the steel and often enough injure themselves. But, unlike razor wire, the border fence does not have any feature which can tear flesh or cause incised wounds on contact.
The razor wire along the Rio Grande river extends in many places to the water’s edge. Refugees cannot exit the river without being entangled in it and Border Patrol cannot reach persons in distress in the river. Of course it would be best that refugees all lined up at established border crossings, doing so can be dangerous on the Mexican side (better to keep moving) and they have been told any path into the United States is OK if they turn themselves in to border authorities to request asylum. The truth of this is that the law requires they must be on U.S soil to apply for asylum.
I am unaware of any portion of the the border fence constructed by the U.S. government being “ordered down”. Congress did not fund a 2000 mile long fence but it was constructed in those areas where the Border Patrol believed it would be helpful and cost effective. Sometimes the dangers of the desert itself are sufficient deterrent. I would extend the border fence with these same criteria, knowing that every foot of fence has to be maintained and patrolled and knowing also that there are other tools such as observation posts, drones and human resources. There were also some private efforts to “build the wall” so their may be cases where authorization or easements over private property were lacking. There was one case, “Build the Wall” where donors were swindled out of their money.
The bi-partisan border bill recently defeated in Congress would have addressed many of these issues. See my “What Were They Thinking” post and you can dig into the cause of this failure on many media channels. PBS is a good one. Cruelty is not the answer.
Thanks for the reply. Took me forever to find what I was actually thinking of that I’d read. Not the metal paneled fence, but the shipping containers over environmental concerns in AZ, but it’s clear from all other quotes and sources that the Biden admin does not favor any kind of wall or border fence, viewing it as not effective. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/after-federal-face-off-arizona-to-remove-shipping-container-wall-from-mexico-border . And another recollection is that the new AZ Democratic governor has changed her tune now that she’s in office and sees what a crisis her border is.
IF politicians are intent on securing our border, I don’t know how they are going to do that without effective deterrents (how do you keep deer out of a rose garden? I would consider it cruel to tempt a deer to enter a place that is surrounded with invisible razor wire, but I don’t consider a human being who does not have a legal claim to enter the country, who can see the wire, but yet chooses to still attempt to enter, the same scenario). I guess that is the million dollar question. I wouldn’t doubt that the US is already trying incentives to keep migrants/illegals/refugees/invaders (some of whom are drug, weapon and child traffickers or otherwise enemies of our country) in their own countries. Let’s hope someone can come up with a more palatable solution for all, and soon.
Janet, out of curiosity I did a search for “Biden Administration installs additional border wall”. Quite a number of interesting articles, several locations. Yes, Biden believes that other deterrents are more effective but none the less has installed some new sections of the boarder fence. Partly this is because the money was already allocated and partly to address specific problem spots. I believe one locations was replacing the shipping containers in Arizona with permanent fencing.
The surge of migrants in December changed a lot of minds, got a lot of press but has now dropped back to previous numbers. Something happened in Mexico to pause the efforts the Mexican government was making to slow the flow of migrants. Secretary of State Blinken went to Mexico and got that back on track.
I want to ask you to imagine yourself in the shoes of someone who has traveled a thousand or more miles, often walking, to reach the United States. Maybe you genuinely fear persecution or torture in your home country and therefore qualify for asylum, or maybe you are just looking for a better life and do not qualify for asylum.
I want to ask you to imagine the geography, environment and culture of the southern border, on both sides. The desert can be a hostile place for many reasons. You speak only one language. Would you try to enter the U.S any way you could? Under those conditions I know I would. By and large these are good people. It is foremost a humanitarian crisis.
So I would like to ask you to research the provisions of the immigration reform bill which stalled in the Senate. Karl Rove presented a good summary on Fox News. I’d also like you to look into why it stalled.
Lastly, cruelty is not the answer. I cannot do razor wire.