The Border: Sen. Mary Landrieu visits the Mexican border, says fence works but it's not enough

The Democrats are as wrong-headed and deluded as the Republicans. For a trenchent analysis of all of this "Secure the Border" insanity, see "Border Security Ten Years After" from CIP's TransBorder Project. 


Sen. Mary Landrieu visits the Mexican border, says fence works but it's not enough | NOLA.com: "Just back from inspecting the U.S.-Mexico border fence, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said Tuesday the barrier is working but is not enough, and that the $1.1 billion in cuts in the House Homeland Security budget would wreck efforts to do the job right.

"The House budget is reckless and irresponsible for protecting the homeland and woefully underfunds our effort to secure the border," said Landrieu, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security....

Landrieu joined Tuesday with U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., John Kyl, R-Ariz., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., in introducing legislation to strengthen efforts to combat tunneling along the Southwest border.

Landrieu said the good news from her trip is that the fence has proved a success.

"I think it was the right investment," she said. "The money that we've invested on border security has reduced the number of illegal entrants into this country by almost 70 percent."

But, she said, the fence is only a fence and, even at 20 feet, it can be scaled in as little as 16 seconds, although "that 16 seconds is important" in catching border-crossers.What is needed, she said, is a "fence-plus." "We need lights, cameras and most important, we need the manpower and womanpower on our border," including, she said, intelligence officers."