Border Fence Part of Larger Solution

About Colin Hanna:

Colin Hanna is president of Let Freedom Ring, a conservative public policy non-profit organization.

A border fence is a necessary element in any serious effort to achieve border security, but it is not the only element. At least three elements are required: infrastructure, manpower and technology. Each one makes the other two more efficient. If any one is omitted, the other two must be increased to an impractical extent.

Take manpower, for example: without some physical barrier, attempting to secure the entire 1,951 mile US-Mexican border would require over 100,000 Border Patrol agents, a financial and administrative impossibility. Even if good technology is employed – cameras, drones and the like – securing the border with manpower and technology alone is still a practical impossibility. Likewise, infrastructure alone won't do the job. Infrastructure may be interpreted to mean a fence, wall or barrier that would impede both individuals and vehicles. At some point, every fence or wall can be scaled or breached. Infrastructure plus manpower could achieve border security, but not as effectively as infrastructure, manpower and technology.

[Read: The Conservative Case Against a Border Fence.]

Our website, www.WeNeedAFence.com shows a design that incorporates all three elements. It has two parallel barriers that would be somewhat time-consuming and cumbersome to breach or scale. Detection devices– cameras, motion detectors, etc. – would be mounted near the fence to notify the nearest Border Patrol station that an attempted intrusion was underway. Between the elements there would be a patrol road that would permit the speedy deployment of manpower to the point of intrusion. None of these elements is particularly complex or expensive, but when coordinated as three essential elements in a system, they can achieve real border security. We also recommend monitored gates at several points to facilitate the legal passage of persons, vehicles and goods.

• Read Obama's four ways forward on immigration.
• Browse a collection of political cartoons on the GOP hopefuls.
• Read more about how the GOP is using the border fence issue for the 2012 election.