Columnist Charles Krauthammer says building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border would vastly reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country.
On Fox News’ "The O’Reilly Factor," Krauthammer said that fences are a proven tool,
Breitbart News reported.
"People say, 'Oh, fences don't work. You make a ladder.' Well, then you build two fences, triple-strand fences. San Diego did that in the mid-'90s and within a decade, the illegal immigration rate at that point was reduced by 90 percent, and people ended up going through other places like Arizona," Krauthammer said, adding that the military should be on patrol behind the fence.
With a properly constructed fence, the "river of illegals would become a trickle," he said.
AFP reported last year that an eight-foot tall steel fence built in San Diego beginning in the 1990s has resulted in the number of illegal immigrants entering there from 400,000 to before the fence was erected to 28,000 last year. The fence is topped with a secondary one made of chain link and razor wire.
Critics acknowledge that the fence has worked in the sense that the number of arrests has declined, but argue that undocumented migrants still come into the United States, just not at San Diego. Further, activist Enrique Morones told AFP that "the barrier and the increased security has meant a rising death toll among migrants who now make a wide detour into the desert to avoid detection."
The Border Patrol reports that 5,570 people died crossing into the United States illegally between 1998 and 2012, according to AFP.
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