[Eagevawax]

Anyone know exactly where this is? "...nine miles at the western edge of a 37-mile stretch of desert in southwestern Arizona" is what the article says. Anyone live near there, who can tell us what's ACTUALLY happening at that location?

"Concrete filled vertical tubes" as vehicle barriers. I take it people can walk between them? Will ordinary fencing be placed between them to impede pedestrian traffic? There's a lot of things this article doesn't tell us.

It would be nice if the Feds kept this up. Time will tell.

How long will it be before we start hearing the tired "A fence alone won't halt illegal immigration!!!', uttered as though somebody had suggested it would?

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CNSNews.com -- News This Hour

Feds Begin Construction of Vehicle Fence Along Southwest Border

Jan. 25, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Construction has begun on vehicle barriers that will be part of a mix of fencing along the Arizona-Mexico border to discourage illegal border crossings, according to the Associated Press. The construction that started Wednesday is part of a Bush administration initiative announced last year aiming to provide a mix of high-tech virtual fencing and a traditional physical barrier.

The first phase of construction will be made up primarily of concrete-filled vertical tubes set into the ground to prevent vehicles from entering. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russell Knocke said some portions of the barrier may also contain traditional fencing. The first phase will be placed along nine miles at the western edge of a 37-mile stretch of desert in southwestern Arizona.

[Thifiadardivy]

Fence is nice, I guess. I'm more worried about making sure employers are being punished at the full extent of the law and no handouts are granted to them. They'll leave in droves when they realize they aren't anything from my wallet anymore.

[Xavier_Spinner_Wheels]

Concrete tubes to stop vehicles in the middle of the desert? I didn't know illegal immigrants were being smuggled in using military Jeeps and Humvees. When will the porkfest end.

[aliceingoogs]

I've seen pics of the fence. The tubes are close enough that a human cannot pass between them. It makes it equally hard to climb over as there is nothing to grip on to come down. Great news but too bad its not the entire border. Fences wont stop everything but they'll sure as heck stop almost everything. Its a no brainer to me.

[Seiblybiozy]

Hopefully they won't forget the land mines.

Other than that, I agree with Emptypepsi, eliminate the work, housing and medical and the trip wouldn't be worth it.

[Dfvgthyju]

I'm all for the fence. Actually that guy who just Declared for the presidential race has good perspective on immigration.

He said something like it's not smart to make adjustments to the front door while the back door is wide-open.

The fence is the first measure we need to take to close the back door, then we can deal with the illegals who are already here. If we spent a fraction of the money we've blown on Iraq to address immigration, this would be one hell of a fence.

[Eagevawax]

Some interesting satellite photos (I think), courtesy of GoogleEarth.

This one zooms in on the towns of San Luis, AZ in the upper left corner, and San Luis, Mexico, south of it. There's a farm on the American side, on the right side of the picture, with some rectangular fields and some round irrigated circles. The triangle just north of it is an airstrip. The border itself runs from the upper left of the shot, to the lower right. GoogleEarth tried to draw a thin yellow line along the border, and they got it prettty close, though not exactly right. The yellow line is a few hundred yards north of where the actual border is.


This one zooms in even further. The westernmost irrigated circle is at the top. South of it is a stretch of desert, then a dirt road and either a paved road or a railroad. South of that is a little more desert. GoogleEarth mistakenly put a yellowish line there, where they think the border is, but it isn't. I've seen them screw this up before - in my neck of the woods around Jacumba and Campo, CA, GoogleEarth puts the border north of Boundary peak, but BP is definitely in the U.S.

Just below the misplaced yellowish line, is the grayish border road on the U.S. side. And just south of that, on the left half of the picture, you can barely see a thin black line, which I believe is the border fence. That's about 1 foot on the U.S. side of the real border. Notice that the thin black line seems to stop just past the small, curved section of the border road.


This pic zooms in even further - GoogleEarth's optics are great, even if their geography sucks. You can alearly see the curved part of the border road, and the small parking are built by the Border Patrol. Looks like they've got a truck trailer or a portable office building on it. You can also see the thin black line clearly, which I believe is the border fence built years ago.


Has anyone actually visited this area recently? Is my description accurate? Most importantly, does the border fence stop right there? Or maybe diminish to a few strands of barbed wire or something that doesn't show up on photos very well (and don't halt illegals worth a damn)?

It's hard to tell the terrain from directly above, but it looks pretty flat and smooth to me. Crossing the border there (or anywhere east) looks like a walk in the park. And notice the handy warehouses and truck parks on the Mexican side of the border - a big one on the lower right part of the picture, and another in the lower center. That center one's the most interesting - it seems to have some well-worn areas going right up to the border itself, gravelled over as though heavy vehicles regularly used that stretch of land.

That's all speculation on my part, of course. I've never been there, and I'm just guessing, based on what I see in these pictures. But I've flown over the border in California quite a lot on Minuteman missions, doing both photography and active patrolling for bad guys, and this looks like a huge red flag to me. It could be the main reason why the Border Patrol put their parking area where they did.

Has anyone on this forum, actually been to San Luis, AZ? Are you going back any time soon? Any chance you could drive out to this area and see if this is where the new fence (well, vehicle barriers) is being built? It's maybe two miles east-southeast of the edge of the city. (Bring a camera! )

[Eagevawax]

This article supplies a few more details about where the new barriers are being built. Sounds like it's pretty close to the spot indicated in the above photos.

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Top News

Fence work starts on Goldwater Range

BY JEFFREY GAUTREAUX, SUN STAFF WRITER
Jan 25, 2007, 6:07 pm

Construction of fencing as part of the Secure Border Initiative has begun near Yuma on a nine-mile phase in the Barry M. Goldwater Range, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Yuma sector Border Patrol spokesman Chris Van Wagenen said work started Wednesday on new fencing in the Yuma sector about 14 miles east of the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz. "They'll start from about where the vehicle barriers stop and head east," he said.

The vehicle barriers already in place start about seven miles east of the port and extend for roughly six miles to the east, Van Wagenen said.

DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen said the new fencing is part of a larger 37-mile project that will mix vehicle barriers, traditional fencing and "virtual fence" technology to deter entry into the United States from Mexico and to aid in the apprehension of more illegal crossers.

On Jan. 12, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff cleared the way for the fence construction to start by waiving environmental regulations and laws impeding construction along the 2.8 million-acre bombing range.

Environmentalists have criticized the fencing and barrier plans, saying that will not stop people in search of jobs but will be a step toward destroying a fragile portion of southern Arizona's desert.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represents Yuma, came out against the decision, saying it was shortsighted to build walls that would harm endangered species and merely force people to cross at different parts of the border.

In building the fence, Agen said, the federal government aims to match the correct infrastructure with the unique characteristics of the border. He said protecting the Goldwater Range is important because as an active bombing range, illegal immigrants are endangered and also hamper military training.

"They have to stop training every time there is an incursion," he said.

[OpVJokl8]

Fence is nice, I guess. I'm more worried about making sure employers are being punished at the full extent of the law and no handouts are granted to them. They'll leave in droves when they realize they aren't anything from my wallet anymore.

Yeah, that is the real solution. The rest of this stuff is just smoke and mirrors.