Fences

Eighty-three senators voted to install a fence along 500 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate voted to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday and clashed over citizenship for millions of men and women who live in the United States illegally.

Amid increasingly emotional debate over election-year immigration legislation, senators voted 83-16 to add fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern border. It marked the first significant victory in two days for conservatives seeking to place their stamp on the contentious measure.

This is a victory for conservatives?

I think it's a victory for Americans.

The fact that securing the border is considered a win for conservatives would imply that liberals would prefer that our southern border remains porous.

Construction of the barrier would send "a signal that open-border days are over. ... Good fences make good neighbors, fences don't make bad neighbors," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. He said border areas where barriers already exist have experienced economic improvement and reduced crime.

"What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics," countered Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He said if the proposal passed, "our relationship with Mexico would come down to a barrier between our two countries."

Open-border days are over.

It's about time that we are getting around to actually enforcing our laws.

Dick "Americans are acting like 'Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime—Pol Pot or others —that had no concern for human beings'" Durbin is clueless.

That is a documented fact.

I have some questions for little Dick:

Is America a sovereign nation?

Is there a border which divides the territory of the United States and the territory of Mexico?

Are the United States and Mexico separate states?

The answer to all of the above is YES.

Given the fact the millions of Mexicans violated our laws and entered the U.S. ILLEGALLY, it is irresponsible to NOT construct a barrier to thwart the law-breaking.

Mexicans or citizens of any other country cannot disregard our immigration laws with impugnity.

If Durbin wants to dub a fence as a symbol for the right wing, then I guess it would be appropriate to consider the lawlessness of a wide open border as a symbol for the left wing.

I'm comfortable with that.