The metal wall cuts straight through the middle of the city, surrounded by a trench and an "all clear zone," a no-man's land. Floodlights, armed soldiers, and high-tech tracking devices are all working overtime. Infrared night-vision scopes, low-light TV cameras, ground sensors, helicopters, and all-terrain vehicles move up and down the border all night. Armed militia and border guards stand at the ready. Inhabitants of the city call it the "iron curtain". The town is Nogales, Arizona, and the wall is built by Americans. The guards work for the Border Patrol and the U.S. Army. It's flimsier than the wall was in Cold War-era East Berlin, and there's another big difference: this wall is meant to keep illegal immigrants out, rather than a captive population in.

The fifteen-foot-high wall was started in 1994, as part of Operations "Gatekeeper" and "Safeguard" — efforts by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to seal off the flow of illegal Mexican immigrants through the San Diego Area and Nogales, Arizona. The militarization of the US — Mexican border began in earnest about four years ago, with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996. The number of Border Patrol agents on the US-Mexico border has doubled over the last five years, to about 8,200. Their budget, meanwhile, has tripled — from $374 million to $952 million. In addition, Congress has assigned about 10,000 soldiers to assist with fence construction and road building. Although they aren't authorized to arrest illegals, the National Guard operates high-tech surveillance equipment and stands guard at the borders.

Has this been an effective way of controlling the influx of Mexicans seeking work in the U.S.? Nationwide figures indicate the the flow of immigrants across the border has been cut by only about 1.2 percent since 1994. With massive unemployment of Mexican agricultural and unskilled workers, illegal emigration to the U.S. remains the rational option for many of Mexico's unemployed. The incentives are irresistible: in the U.S., the average illegal makes about $60/day. The same workers make about $5/day in Mexico - when they can find jobs.

Now that migrant workers can't cross the heavily guarded sectors of the 2,000-mile border - most of which are in California and Texas - many have opted to make their moves in the more desolate desert areas of the Southwest. These crossings are the most dangerous. Over four years, 1,185 deaths have been attributed to drowning, dehydration, and being run over by automobiles as illegals moved into the desert to avoid official ports of entry. In 1999 alone, Border Patrol agents have rescued more than 846 migrants in the area surrounding Tucson, Arizona.

Mexico's new president-elect Vincente Fox wants the United States to tear the wall down. On August 23, he arrived in Washington to present his plans to Clinton for a gradual, 5-10 year opening of the border between the two countries. Fox is also expected to meet with Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to gain support for his suggestion. While both Gore and Bush have spoken out in favor of increased economic cooperation between the two countries, neither candidate has shown any support for an open border. But even as the borders remain closed, illegals make up 40 percent of the labor force in California's agricultural districts. Many consider this relationship an essential "anti-inflationary" element for the economies of the Southern States. Should the U.S. accept these workers and take down the walls?

On One Hand...

The wall should be taken down, and its militarization - which has become extreme over the last decade - must be ended. The military buildup of the border is a paranoid and politically opportunistic attempt to cover up an essential economic relationship between the United States and Mexico. For decades, Mexican migrant workers have been exploited as a resource by American employers north of the Border. The INS recognizes this, and although huge amounts have been spent militarizing and building up the border, there were only twenty-four convictions and fifteen prosecutions for illegal hiring practices in all of FY 1997. Alan Greenspan admits that these illegals play an increasingly essential "anti-inflationary" role in the US economy. In California's agricultural industry, for instance, they make up about 40 percent of the workforce, compared with about 10 percent of that workforce in 1990. So why are the INS and Congress making it so difficult and dangerous for workers to cross the border by forcing them to cross through the Arizona desert so that they can pick apples?

The answer is simple: it makes American citizens feel protected, and gets people elected, without actually stopping the flow of migrant workers. In 1996, Clinton used his huge militarization of the border to counter suggestions that he was weak on illegal aliens. Republicans and Democrats have scrambled to claim credit for increased numbers of arrests of smugglers and illegal aliens. But with all the helicopters and surveillance equipment, and with all the money spent on locking Mexican workers up and transporting them back across the border, the simple fact remains: the border is 20,000 miles long, and 300 miles of fencing isn't going to seal it.

On the Other Hand...

The border must remain militarized and closed. It isn't just a crossing point for Mexicans on their way to work. It's the most popular route for drug dealers and smugglers. An estimated 400 tons of cocaine, 150 tons of methamphetamines and 15 tons of heroin entered the US across the border last year alone. 2.7 million unauthorized Mexicans have established residence in the United States. The Mexican-American border is the busiest American frontier. The wage differential between the two countries ($5/day - $60/day) is the greatest between any two bordering countries in the world. In a few decades the Mexican-American population will become the largest single minority in the United States. Does anyone have any idea how massive the displacements would be if the Border Guards just decided to take down the fence and walk away?

With the new Fox government there is hope for economic reform. Our economies are becoming more integrated under NAFTA, and gradual movements toward modernization are all significant. But the chaos and illegality around the border has got to be stopped. Legal transportation of goods is what drives both the Mexican and American economies. Illegal transportation of goods and people is uncontrollable, and it places the transfer of resources in the hands of smugglers and kingpins. The United States has responded to the problem of illegal immigration simply because — until now, at least — the Mexican government has been unwilling to cooperate or to be seen as fencing their own people in. The effort to crack down on illegal workers and smugglers — who use our resources without contributing to our society — should be cooperative. Until it is, though, the US Border Patrol should be supported and adequately funded to carry out its job of keeping guard over the gate.

• About 340,000 Mexican laborers migrate each year to the United States - about half of them illegally.
• Among the advanced industrial countries, the United States has the toughest penalities for smuggling and related activities, but it ranks the lowest in terms of sanctions against employers of illegal workers.
• As many as 15 million farmers will be leaving agriculture in the next decade or two. Crossing the border will be the logical option for many of them.
• Arrests of undocumented immigrants across the border region remain at record highs, hoing over the 1.5 million mark in fiscal 1999. This is 20 percent higher than during the first year of Operation Gatekeeper.
• General Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton's "drug czar" gave this opinion of militarization of US-Mexico border on McNeill-Lehrer in 1997: "I don't think it's a useful course of action, you really can't end up using military personnel for domestic law enforcement. And I might add, the principal drug smuggling threat that we face is through the 38 ports of entry into the United States. Literally 85 million cars and trucks and half a million rail cars from our second biggest trading power. So that doesn't lend itself to resolution by military combat power..."

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