Something There Is That Doesn't Love a Wall

Winter frost heave can topple rocks so why then bother restacking them again?

Robert Frost: Mending Wall
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

National Conservative Weekly has thoughts from Rep. Duncan Hunter and a few Republican Senators on the wisdom of building a fence along our borders.

Hunter Promotes Fence, Allen Sits on It: Last night the House voted 260 to 159 to approve an amendment to the bill sponsored by House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter (R.-Calif.) to authorize construction of several hundred miles of fencing along five strategic stretches of border. … So, if it’s feasible to build, why aren’t we building it?

HUNTER: Well, because you typically have these diplomatic-type protests that speak stupidly of a Great Wall of China or some other nutty comparison. We’re simply talking of having a real border and asking people when they want to come to the United States that they come in the front door—which is, incidentally, the biggest front door in the world.

The comments from a number of Republican Senators indicate more resistance to the idea of a physical barrier along the national borders, as typified by probable 2008 presidential candidate Sen. George Allen (R – Va).

ALLEN: I think a virtual fence would be much less costly to the taxpayers. I think the key thing, regardless of virtual or actual fence, which would take a long time. Let’s assume we wanted to build the Great Wall of America, which can be done, it would take years and years.

Immigration and border control is going to be a primary topic in the 2008 presidential race and both parties will be fine tuning their positions on the matter. At this time the idea of building walls strikes me as symbolic, expensive and ineffective. People arrive in America by air, land and sea so an optimal solution addresses all three areas. Global motility is a fact and the problem of knowing who is physically present in this country is better served by funding improvements in verification and documentation of individual identity.