Border Fence: February 2009 Archives

I continue to be baffled by the break in harmony between United States and Mexico.  We appeared so close to each other in 2001 that TIME magazine called the border zone, Amexica. "A Whole New World," the article exclaimed.  

President Bush even went to Mexico, instead of Canada, for his first international trip.  The entire Mexican cabinet met with the entire U.S. cabinet days before September 11, 2001.  American and Mexican relations were closer than ever. 

After Sept. 11, Americans traveled in large numbers to Mexican resorts versus going to oversea destinations.  Mexico's travel campaign tag line was indeed correct:  Mexico: closer than ever. 

What happened?

How did we go from A Whole New World (TIME June 11, 2001)  to The Great Wall of America (TIME June 30, 2008)?

On Friday, incoming DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano released her list of priorities for immigration and border security.  Implementing these programs may allow for a successful immigration bill in 2010. 

The issue for most of the 1990s/2000s is immigrant applications flooded government agencies, and we didn't have the proper policies and procedures in place to manage the demand.  Though many Americans said we had an immigration system that should be followed, it wasn't entirely functional and many immigrants who applied waited years for a response from our government.  Furthermore, we had government officials and businesses announcing a guest worker program that hadn't been officially approved.  All in all, the immigration reform enthusiasm died when Congress couldn't reach an agreement with the president in June 2006.

Nonetheless, the most affected state was Arizona and Napolitano, who was the former governor of Arizona, paved the way forward.  She was the first governor to mandate that employers must use E-verify when hiring new staff members or their business license would be revoked.  Although there were some preliminary data quality and operation flaws, the system is expected to operate more efficiently, and the USCIS Ombudsman just completed a report on the lessons learned from the AZ experience.

Meanwhile, the U.S./Mexico border fence authorized by Congress in 2005 is now almost complete.  Though it cost about $3.9 million a mile, most of the future cost will be maintaining, repairing blow torched holes, and patrolling it.  This will prevent drug and human smuggling into the United States.

Finally, more than 201,00 criminals illegally in the United States were removed last year.