Things to consider about the border wall

I’m going to resist the temptation to address the concept of immigration in historical perspective. I’m not going to focus on either the financial aspects of building a wall or the political shenanigans going on in Washington, DC.
Rather let’s focus on an issue I haven’t seen being batted around in the mainstream media or in social media. If/when the wall is built, how effective will it be?
Most Americans who have never seen the international boundary first-hand up-close-and-personal lack a realization of what we’re dealing with.
50 years ago in 1969, after a long pleasant drive through the wide-open expanses of West Texas, I arrived a bit too late to visit the Judge Roy Bean Museum in Langtry, Texas just after it closed at 5 p.m. Nobody was around, so out of curiosity I drove right down to the bank of the shallow Rio Grande River. This by all means is not the most desolate location on the U.S.-Mexico border, but it impressed my young mind.
At a later stage of life, I found myself within the Calexico Port of Entry in California at the exact demarcation line between the two countries. I was struck how a matter of inches could mean the difference between first world and third world.
These are just anecdotes to demonstrate that the border is not a political construct. It is a physical location which separates one way of life from all others. Not only the security, but moreover the sovereignty, of any nation is a function of its ability to determine and control access to its homeland.
1,954 miles of varied urban and mostly rural topography extend from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. It runs through the cities of San Diego and Nogales and El Paso and Laredo. It also runs past the beautiful but isolated Big Bend of the Lone Star State. Much of it is desert and a good portion of it is the Rio Grande.
To be truly effective, a wall would need to run the entire distance from west to east. Otherwise, it just diverts the illegal border crossers to areas which are not fortified.
I’ll give you a perfect example of that. Antelope Wells was for many years a one-man Port of Entry in Hidalgo County in the bootheel of New Mexico. The Port Director and his family lived right next to the gate. It’s about 89 miles from Antelope Wells to the bigger Port of Columbus, NM. The first half of that drive is on a deserted road between the border and I-10.
The only thing new about what’s happening now is that the illegal crossings are getting more attention than they did in the past.
For the record, U.S Customs and Border Protection Officers do both Customs and Immigration duties within official Ports of Entry. Between the Ports of Entry is the domain of U.S. Border Patrol which is an arm of CBP that was inherited during the merger of Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs when Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003. Both the CBPO in the POE and the BP in between are sworn Federal Officers tasked with keeping our country safe at the border and beyond.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement are the plain clothes Special Agents who investigate smuggling of both illegal aliens and contraband as well as other criminal activity having a nexus with the border.
Now that we have a clear picture of the logistics involved, let’s look at the proposed wall itself. I won’t go into the proposed or actual plans for the physical nature of the barrier as that is more a function of politics than of actual effectiveness.
If the wall does not cover the entire border, basically the queue jumpers as well as those of truly hostile intent will simply go where it isn’t. Even if it does extend from San Diego to Brownsville, there is still potential for it to be circumvented.

• Around ~ by sea.
• Over ~ by air.
• Under ~ by tunnels.
• Through ~ by explosives.

Recall that the Government of Mexico is not a dependable ally to police their side of the border.
One key acronym I hope you will take away with you from this article is OTM.
Other Than Mexican.
Somali.
Bangladeshi.
Iranian.
Potentially every nationality on earth.
There are both Shia and Sunni Islamic terrorist operatives in Latin America who facilitate the movement of persons from the Middle East, Southwest Asia and elsewhere through Mexico into the United States of America. We are not just talking about Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan families with children fleeing economic conditions in their home countries. The caravans are trained to put those people in the front to soak up the camera coverage. But there are many single young males of Jihadi age and intent who easily mingle into these groups.
I don’t want to digress too much about comparing our situation to that of our ally Israel. The distance from Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba to the Golan Heights is just 274 miles. There are barriers along the borders of Sinai and Gaza and Lebanon and the West Bank.
The Israeli Defense Force is authorized to and does in fact use lethal force against intruders who threaten the lives of Israeli citizens if they were allowed to penetrate the border. You and I know fully well that our own country lacks the resolve to use this level of deterrence and prevention on the border.
The percentage of border crossers who enter illegally from Mexico with such terrorist intent is certainly not like that which Israel faces.
But how many terrorists is too many?
I would say: 1.
The Mexican border is only one conduit of illegal aliens into the USA. It’s beyond our scope here to look at the much, much longer Canadian border which has been very vulnerable to penetration in the past including via the Great Lakes. Not even considering the border between Alaska and Canada.
Finally, it must be stated that illegal aliens in the United States are not just those who have snuck in from Mexico. There are also those who came legally on non-immigrant visas who overstayed their time of admission. There are non-immigrants who are out of status such as a person on a student visa who is not currently enrolled in the authorized academic Institution.
But right now, the hot-button issue is the Mexican border.
The United States does not have the willpower to shut down commerce entirely and stop all movement of persons within the Ports of Entry. We most definitely will never fire lethal rounds at those crossing where they’re not supposed to.
We should also consider the meaning of the term invasion. Dictionary definitions usually indicate that it involves a foreign armed force crossing our borders. But a familiarity with today’s Jihadi concept of asymmetrical warfare suggests that combatants are not always in uniform or officially identified as military of a nation state.
Candidly, we do not know who is crossing our border unless they present themselves with legitimate documents at a Port of Entry to be examined and potentially admitted by a CBP Officer. Those who evade the U.S. Border Patrol along our national frontier could be ideological enemies bent on our destruction from within.
So, our bottom line is that the wall is only part of the solution, that it must be from sea to sea and that we must have the apolitical resolve to deal appropriately with those who attempt to violate it.