Smith: Don’t wait for feds to build fence

Editor’s note: This column is the first in a four-part series on the debate surrounding Sen. Steve Smith’s successful sponsorship of a senate bill to create a website to raise money with private donations to build a fence along the Arizona-Mexico border. We begin with Smith’s column. The next three are by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-7th District), Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and local Democratic Party organizer Henry Wade.

 

The reason tougher border security and a legitimate border fence is needed is because there has been an unparalleled invasion of drug cartels, violent gangs, an estimated 12 to 20 million illegal aliens and even terrorists that continue to enter the United States from across the southern border.

In reaction to the federal government’s inaction, I wrote Senate Bill 1406 which established the www.buildtheborderfence.com website to collect funds from across the country to build the much-needed fence. Also, in an effort to contain costs, inmate labor will be utilized in the construction of the border fence project. 

As of the effective date of this bill, July 20, only about 685 miles of the nearly 2,000 mile long border between the United States and Mexico is fenced. The vast majority of this existing fence consists of barbed-wire, vehicle barriers and inadequate materials that have minimal effectiveness in stopping illegal crossings. The approximately 1,315 remaining miles of the border currently have no fencing at all.

Despite what President Barack Obama stated in his speech on May 10, that, “the (border) fence is now basically complete,” rest assured it is not.  Remember, it is the constitutional duty of the federal government to protect “We the People of the United States,” but what happens when the government does not do its job? 

The Secure Fence Act passed by Congress in 2006 defined operational control of the border as “prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics and other contraband.” Today, estimates show that 10 to 15 percent of the border is under operational control and we currently have no way of tracking how many illegal aliens are entering the United States every day.

Phoenix has been infamously deemed the “Kidnapping Capital” of the United States and second in the world only to Mexico City. Estimates show more than $100 billion was spent on services for illegal aliens in the United States in 2010. 

Several officials and media outlets have reported that many of the forest fires that have devastated Arizona and the Southwest were caused by illegal aliens. A recent article in The Washington Times stated “U.S. Border Patrol agents … are being targeted by illegal aliens, who are using intentionally set fires to burn agents out of observation posts and patrol routes.”

For these and many more reasons, now is the time that we must heed the advice of John F. Kennedy and “… ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”