Tancredo Asks, "Is A Fence Folly?"

"If Americans have the will to do so, setting up a fence can be effective"

I have said for many years that if we as a nation do not believe in borders, then Congress should pass a law abolishing our borders and hanging out a new sign: "Everyone welcome, no questions asked." That seems to be what open-borders advocates are recommending when they oppose meaningful border control.

The only thing stopping us from having secure borders is the will to do so, not any physical or technological constraint. Yes, there is a cost, but since national security is the first responsibility of the federal government, we can find the dollars in our $2.7 trillion budget when we decide we need secure borders. . .

. . . To be effective, border security must be supported by serious enforcement of immigration laws in the interior of the country. It makes no sense to tell would-be trespassers, as we do now, that if they make it past the Border Patrol, they are home free. And tremendous pressure on our border security resources would be relieved if we penalized rogue employers who hire illegal aliens, and made it easier for law-abiding employers to check the legal status of their employees. If there's no job waiting for them, few illegal aliens would attempt the treacherous trip across our borders in the first place. This sort of comprehensive approach - border security and interior enforcement - is the right fix for our broken borders.