Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

After Congress passed the Secure Fence Act in 2006, which provided for the construction of 700 miles of fence on the Mexican border, there were a lot of stories about how Congress and the Bush Administration were delaying and deceiving to try to get out of actually building the fence. So I was surprised today to read that the prescribed fence is now half done. The first step to getting control of our immigration problem is to gain some semblance of control over who enters. While I recognize that a fence won't stop everyone, it will make it harder to cross illegally, and it will funnel immigrants to unfenced areas, making the Border Patrol's job a little easier. A lock on your front door won't keep out a determined burglar, but that doesn't mean you should go without a lock altogether.

The plan apparently is to finish the 700 miles by the end of the year. I hope that goal is met, because I suspect that a President Clinton or Obama would not see the fence as a high priority (probably not McCain either, for that matter). I'm not very happy with President Bush's immigration record, but if we can build 700 miles of fence on his watch, that will mitigate a lot of the bad.