The US-Mexico Border: A Desert Monument to Failure

Der Spiegel of Germany takes a clear-eyed look at the border fence boondoggle. 

The US-Mexico Border: A Desert Monument to Failure - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International: "The United States wanted to send to potential illegal immigrants from Mexico a clear message: There's no way in. More than 1,100 kilometers of permanent fencing were meant to prevent access to the country, but it has still failed to stem the tide of Mexicans seeking a better life north of the border. ...

In fact, those who wanted to cross the border illegally turned out to be exceedingly inventive. They built tunnels under the fence. They catapulted their drug shipments over it. Gangs of human traffickers would take $200 (€140) from Mexicans trying to escape hardship. Many trying to cross lost their lives in the process, either dying of hunger or thirst, or getting shot by American vigilantes.

Yet all the US presidents have kept on building: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Whenever they stepped up checks with patrols, fortifications and the most modern technology, those trying to cross the border illegally simply went elsewhere. It was an endless game of cat and mouse, while in Washington every political attempt at immigration reform floundered."