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Arizona Lawmakers Say They Will Build Border Fence, Work to Be Done by Prisoners
PHOENIX - Arizona is taking on immigration once again, with state lawmakers collecting donations from the public to put fencing along every inch of the state’s porous Mexican border in a first-of-its-kind effort.
The idea came from state Sen. Steve Smith, a Republican who says that people from across the nation have donated about $255,000 to the project since July, when the state launched a fundraising website that urges visitors to "show the world the resolve and the can-do spirit of the American people."
Much of the work is expected to be done by prisoners at 50 cents an hour. (photo: d∂wn)
Smith acknowledges he has a long way to go to make the fence a reality. The $255,000 collected will barely cover a half mile of fencing. Smith estimates that the total supplies alone will cost $34 million, or about $426,000 a mile. Much of the work is expected to be done by prisoners at 50 cents an hour.
The fence is Arizona’s latest attempt to force a debate on whether the federal government is doing enough to stop illegal immigration. Key provisions of the state’s contentious immigration bill were suspended by a judge, and Gov. Jan Brewer is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to get them reinstated. Brewer also signed the fencing bill.
Critics of the private fence plan say the idea is a misguided, piecemeal approach to border issues that will prove to be ineffective and hugely expensive. They point to the billions of dollars spent by the federal government to build fencing that hasn’t stopped illegal immigration.
"You’re going to get 50 yards of fencing, if that," says Alfredo Gutierrez, a former Democratic state senator and immigrant-rights advocate who ran for governor in 2002.
But Smith and other supporters don’t care.
They say the federal government has done little to secure the border and that additional fencing will close gaps exploited by smugglers and illegal immigrants. Even if the fence isn’t completed, Smith and others believe the project will send a message to Washington.
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50 Comments so far
Show AllThis is another effing cretin who got into office in the AZ legislature because the 'opposition party' has been so completely eviscerated from within, while the criminal election-theft policies make any sort of change in policy through procedure impossible. (Who took charge of the ballots during the election night a year ago? The internationally-infamous human rights violator, Gauleiter Arpaio.)
"show the world the resolve and the can-do spirit of the American people."
When you tune in only to Faux Newz and hear only that, it's like having never tasted any food but ground beef. You think ground beef is the greatest thing on the planet. You'll worship it because you think it's your lifeline. You'll guard with locked/loaded guns the plunderous production of beef because you have no idea that a great variety of more nutritious food can be had at a tenth of the cost. This is the Merkan Condition. One idea, "Merkan Pre-eminence" holds a monopoly on the mind, and the heart is chained to it as well, by fear. Fear that one's feet may really not be on terra firma, that one's life may have been built in a floating limbo.
Sounds reasonable to me. After all, the United States of America, that shining city on a hill, has a long proud tradition of slavery and genocide.
As does Mexico. You could choose the lesser of two evils and move to Mexico.
Yeah, like that's gonna happen........
Inquiring minds wanna know: what does Mexico really have to do with this article again? As for a pissing contest between which of the two countries is worse, I wouldn't go putting my pennies on the good ole US if I were you.
"Inquiring minds wanna know: what does Mexico really have to do with this article again?"
Geez, are you that thick? No, they're building the fence along the Grand Canyon so people don't fall in. Pennies or pesos -you decide what you'd rather have in your pocket. We all know what the Mexicans would rather hold, don't we.
No, I'm not that thick but it appears that you are. And your dishonesty is blatantly obvious also, btw. The article is about using prison labor (a/k/a slave labor) to supposedly keep Mexicans from crossing the border illegally. And that is the extent of Mexico's involvement in the article. Care to try again, Fauxling? However, I do have to commend you on grasping straws to whip an invalid argument out of nothing.
Your final sentence puts it all into context (in case there were any doubts): YOU ARE A RACIST! And I'd rather have pesos, you can keep your stinking dirty blood dollars since these days, they are worth less than the pesos.
Yet you're compelled to argue over an "invalid argument"? Interesting. As far as "trying again", it really doesn't take all that much effort in your case. Almost every comment here is a knee-jerk reaction and you're no exception.
And to prove us all wrong...well, you do exactly the same thing. Or are you just doing it in hopes of blending in?
I didn't know there was anything to "prove" on an internet forum. We're all entitled to an opinion; we don't have to agree. It's nothing more Rev; I'm sorry your sensibilities are so easily bruised. It's not personal.
I might be for this wall, but they are gong to put it on the wrong border of the state. It should be on the UPPER one. And both sides. Then the REST of us would be safe from their psychopaths (like we don't have enough of our own).
I nominate Arizona as a replacement for Texas as the #1 retard state.
~
"Then the REST of us would be safe from their psychopaths (like we don't have enough of our own). "
Why don't you tell us about your psychopaths? I think it only fair that we get a chance to trash your state and decide whether we want to wall it off so the "REST" of us can be safe.
Wow, you're batting for all the wrong issues today. Whattsamatta, did you get lost on your way to FAUX Nation or something?
"Wow, you're batting for all the wrong issues today."
Sure, I'll take a swing now and then.
So what position do you like "catcher or pitcher"? Something tells me "catcher".
Rather a catcher than a racist be. But you can feel free to knock yourself with your racism.
What a great idea! Now the prisoners that build the wall can pass on the info to the tunnel building smugglers where the "designated tunneling points" designed and built into the wall by prisoners are.
The prisoner entrepreneurs, in the highest tratidion of wall street "job creators", can "lobby" the guards to look the other way.
Meanwhile, prison officials can bill the suckers (I mean the taxpayers, of course) for the cost of building the wall.
Ah, the wonders of Capitalism.
My mind likes to jump to "what-ifs." Let me see, Arizona state prisoners are going to be building a border fence with Mexico. If some strange occurrence ended up with escaped prisoners going into Mexico, I presume Arizona state authorities would lack the legal standing to chase them in a foreign country. Hmmm!
Oh I remember another such wall as this. It was called the Maginot line, built by the French in WW2 to prevent German infiltration. The Germans were never really as dumb as the French, they just went around the ends of the wall.
What I do not understand is. How can Mexicans be so dumb as even wishing to enter Arizona, or is it just a transition point for entry to better areas?
Slave labor, just like China and other dictatorships.
Lets just give Arizona and Texas back to the Mexicans and apologize for the Mexican War of 1848 call it good and go on about our business. Let the Mexican's deal with these racist fools.
This is a wonderful idea.
Why do you hate the Mexicans so? Don't you think your government has aggrieved and harm them enough already?
I have seen that fence and it is truly the stupidest thing I have ever seen.
When I saw the picture I thought, "Interesting, an article in Common Dreams about the wall Israel is building to illegally enclose Palestinian land and surround the bantustans they are creating on the West Bank."
But it was Arizona. Which leads me to the question: Why don't I remember any reports of the murderous suppression of people protesting the apartheid wall? Or of the arrogant attacks on Palestinians by fanatical settlers in the West Bank enclaves that are condoned and protected by the Israeli Army? Have I not been paying attention? Or is this another one of those topics that CD chooses to ignore, like the revolutionary movements in Latin America.
AZ is CDs favorite whipping boy with TX coming in second, as you can see by one of the comments here. IMO, this issue is pretty much co-opted by special interests and CD probably has to throw a bone to some of their donors; consider that there is never an article about the negative impacts of unlimited immigration. Every ideology has their own propaganda.
If you look at a map of Native American lands in 1840 and compare it to the reservations of today, you will gain a REAL understanding of the NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF UNLIMITED IMMIGRATION!
See immigrant trains in the 19th century, the Homestead Act and the massive campaign (paid by US railroads and the US Government - which were basically the same thing then) to print and disseminate flyers in WHITE Europe in the 19th century.
Di you know that the Native Americans don't own jack shit on the reservations? That's right. The US Government holds the land IN TRUST. That is why they are still poor while the land has many natural resources. The US Government does NOT allow Native Americans to build wind generators, mine for raw materials or do much of anything but put manufactured homes on wind swept land. They are still to this day not allowed to teach their own language in the schools.
All I can say is, WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND.
Thanks for the history lesson, agelbert. Hope you get a 21st century update soon. I could correct you about the current rights of Native Americans (I'm NM native) but you seem rather comfortable in your beliefs.
Congratulations, Arizoners!!!
Here in Washington State, immigration sweeps and crackdowns have scared off migratory labor and farmers can't get their apples harvested. Desperate, the farmers are paying the state $22 per hour for prison labor. The migratory workers who stayed, however, can't get a raise from min. wage, the prisoners aren't paid much of anything, but the state is making some money. Most of us will pay for this at the grocery store. So Arizonans, how much will the state be keeping of your wonderful donations? How will the prisoners be treated? Doesn't it make you feel great to be part of such a "free" and humane society?
I was in Yakima Valley in September and the apple harvest was proceeding as usual; busloads of pickers, the sourish smell of apples everywhere and truckloads of filled apple containers. Every possible place around Yakima was filled with latinos. Is it that your farmers just don't want to pay fair prices so they rely on illegal (slave) labor? Also, one little ol' fence in AZ "ain't' gonna hardly stop anyone who wants to enter illegally; there's still CA, NM, and TX. I suggest you go back to your latte and shill for corporate America elsewhere. As I've said before most people who live 'up north' have no idea what is going on down here. BTW, Washington State supermarket apples are cold storage apples, taste like hay and are a product of agribiz and labor exploitation. I don't buy 'em for all those reasons. I buy NM apples and only when in season which means we only get to eat apples a few months not the entire year.
Same in GA. They are reporting a shortage of about 15,000 laborers. At one point, that weasel, Deal, even proposed forcing people on probation to go work on the farms as a condition. Nothing seems to be working out so far, notwithstanding the over 10% (official) unemployment rate in the state. At the end, just like everything else in the Corporate States of Amerika today, it's the people, including those who own small businesses such as the farmers, are the ones being hurt with the big boys lining their pockets.
I hope that logitech's racism doesn't go unnoticed, ontheres. Not that the critter is trying to hide it or anything.
This presupposes that the Police in AZ will leave any prisoners, so-called 'illegal immigrants', or even criminals alive long enough to build the damn wall.
Arizona is returning to it's murderous history of State sanctioned and supplied Police death squads, which figured prominently during the '60s and '70s suppression of the Latino civil rights movement, and which has seen a resurgence ever since Bush the Unready was (s)elected.
Would you entrust this task to Police who post on the VERY public social media websites 'Facebook(tm)' and 'MySpace(tm)' that their occupations are “human waste disposal” and “oxygen thief removal technician”, and loudly opine “Some people are only alive because killing them is illegal.” Even their own superiors admit that these are tacit admissions of hostile intent. Those same superiors admit the statements are “concerning” and “very clearly inappropriate”, but also refuse to do anything about these officers.
To the professionally Non-violent(tm) who monitor CD to ensure we are being as compliant as possible with the from-the-top-down-only violent Elite: Do you think maybe, just maybe, it's finally time to do everything reasonable to defend ourselves from these murderous State sanctioned thugs?
*Comment deleted by site administrators as spam: identical, repetitive comments posted on multiple articles*
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
Save the money on the fence, fine all company's,business and corporations 100000 for every illegal found in their employment. No jobs, no illegal immigration.
Its that easy, and everyone knows it. Any other discussion or solution requiring , a fence, more border patrol, incarceration , etc, is a joke at best, and extremely illogical.
But, those of us who don't have masters degrees, or deep pockets and lobbyists speaking in our behalf, are never heard.
I hear the whole "Americans to do American jobs" thing is going just swimmingly in Alabama, what with the fields full of rotting produce.
Maybe you should get on the bus to Alabama then or are you too comfortable in your armchair. Or maybe you can't stand the thought of not having a salad.
Excuse me but your racism, hatred and ignorance are showing. I thought you may want to know that since you can't see yourself from behind.
Rev, your rather sophomoric sermons are starting to put me to sleep. You could try typing in CAPS or mention "hellfire" and "damnation". That would be entertaining!
Well, what are you waiting for then? Time to take those meds and kiss Gracie good night.
BTW, you are getting more and more infantile and stupid by the post. In case that helps putting you to sleep. Also, if you weren't such a filthy racist, you wouldn't have anyone tailing you and calling you on it. And I'd rather that my rants be sophomoric than Xenophobic like yours.
"you are getting more and more infantile and stupid by the post" Yet you are compelled to reply. Interesting. Can't spit the hook, can you?
Apparently, when the Great Wall Of China was built with forced labour (slave labour by any other name) to keep out the Mongols - the citizens had complete and utter contempt for their rulers who had become so weak and inept at defending the country as other leaders had been able to do with no problem for centuries before - they had to resort to a physical wall which every rational person knew to be abject failure.
China eventually defeated the Mongol hordes even without the wall. Today, as then, the citizenry has utter contempt for our rulers who can't defend the border.against modern day hordes while expanding empire. But that isn't their plan, is it? Our corporate gov't needs more obedient wage-slaves and fresh cannon fodder to do their bidding. The wall is futile and desperate.
Are they re-hiring Lockheed Martin for this project too? It would only be the natural thing to do since they did so well in the Shrub's famous 'virtual fence' and they are already well versed in the training of prisoners to build their weapons, etc.
PS: And here's another question that begs to be asked: is that fence really to keep the Mexicuns out or the Amerikuns in?
Reverend_Boomerang, Agelbert, et al
I agree with your comments. First off, as far as the land trust and casinos. Yes, the land is in trust, and some tribes have to buy the land that is in trust. With the casinos, I think it was in the late 80s or early 90s, there was a man that would try to bring the slot machines to the casinos in Califas. This man was always arrested, and his slot machines were confiscated. This went on for years. Now, what is happening, they are stripping people from the rolls of getting benefits, denying the right to live on their lands...
With the immigration issue, I say shame on Arizona and all the other states that are giving the immigrants a hard time. I'm a sicken by all of this blame and shame - when it's there in black and white on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website where they had a press release report called "An Open Letter to Congress." This had all the businesses that supported and wanted more immigration, requesting different skills from each worker, with different types of visas. What is sad about this, the workers from developing nations (what they call 3rd world) receive different pay than those of Europeans workers, the European workers much faired better with rights, benefits, and pay.
I agree with Reverend_Boomerang, when he mentioned slave labor. I've noticed how businesses will bring in workers, mostly poor, and when they complain the employer would ridicule them and say things like, 'well, this is better than what you've come from...'
Prison labor, yes, this is happening. In fact, I've heard once that the prisoners are working with raising fish, that consumers may think is Talapia (I think that was the fish), but, this fish was also sold at some of the major supermarkets.
In Riverside, Califas, I think it is the county jail, but, they now want to charge prisoners for their stay of incarceration. Which is sad, because I view this as people will be locked up on a whim. ***the story is starting to resonate with me, the guy who writes "escape from America.
As far as building a fence. Hmmm! Interesting! Especially with all of the talks of going global, 'easier to move workers and goods.' Reagan lover's that applauded him for saying ,"tear down this wall." (Referring to the Berlin Wall). Yet, again, someone mentioned the wall of Palestine. Yeah, the big cinderblocks. I usually tell people, and have been for the past 2 years, the day may come when you may want to go South of the Border! I have also made me self clear when I told them that it is unfair that in Ambergris Cayes, Belize, (Belize is formerly British Honduras), Americans, Canadians, Europeans have taken over this little islet and they refuse to let any of the locals (original citizens, natives) come to this area without permission and they must have money to prove they can sustain themselves while there. Yes - this is happening today as we speak! Yet, when hurricane season is upon them, and a hurricane warning is issued, they come to Belize's main city, or Belpoman to go into hurricane shelters.
Some information was omitted in your point about wage disparity. Specifically, skill levels between the Europeans and "3rd" world. Are you comparing dirt farmers with software engineers? Please clarify. In the example of your Belize islet, sounds like the Europeans/Americans are trying to preserve the place. The current birth rate of Belize is 26.5/1000. At that rate the "locals" would have the place over run, the reefs stripped. You see skinny, that is the entire problem. It's unsustainable in any scenario. The southern hemisphere simply cannot breed without responsibility then expect to dump the excess population on the US.
From the article,,("The $255,000 collected will barely cover a half mile of fencing.").
Tell ya what Smitty, give me the $255,000 and I'll build you a 12 foot high block wall two miles long.
Where we live seven miles form the border there is already a high fence.. At dry washes the fence ends and there are steel poles spaced about three feet apart to prevent vehicles from crossing.. Doesn't stop anyone walking through, unless they are really fat... Those opening also are designed to allow wildlife to come and go as they desire.
The photo in this article shows a 12 foot high fence, so one needs two 13 foot long ladders to climb over and down to the Arizona side... We have friends who live right one the border, the fence is their back yard fence.. IIlegals come through their propery almost every night... The ones with the large backpacs are carrying drugs which are stashed for later pickup.
If one has a good shovel or trenching tool, it is not difficult to tunnel under the fence. easier than carrying two 13 foot long ladders. The current fence is heavy wire.. One can find a good pair of bolt cutters at a swap meet for ten bucks. Then the stolen pickups and vans can go to Mexico.
Just stretch razor wire 12 feet high along the border and bury land mines along and under the wire Smitty... See how that works... Give it up Smitty, they dig tunnels one can drive a truck through, sometimes they are found... If someone wants to cross the border either drug smugglers or people smugglers, they will cross, fences or not.
Let's analize the problem... Why do people want to illegally come across the Mexico/US border? __ Then answer that pertenant question and solve that issue.
WayneWR,
Some points, or should I say reasons they want/or are force to illegally cross the border.
*NAFTA put most farmers out of business.
*Some of our corporations that went there, moved out, and went to other countries.
*Some of corporations have sent recruiters to seek workers looking for work-promising them the sun/moon only to be put into deeper debt (workers have to pay the recruiters. I've read articles from human rights sites that says that there are some workers that are locked behind wire fences and under armed guard to prevent their escape/they aren't allowed to leave the grounds/they are not allowed to have visitors/sometimes there are like 24 men in one trailer with 1-2 bathrooms/1-2 water container(s)/meals and housing is deducted from their pay) I think DN has an article about a guy from Pakistan that was able to get away from this.
*the safety/life - what I don't understand, we supported Libya, we went into Iraq saying we were there to liberate the people. Yet, with Mexico, all we have done is issue travel alerts, while thousands have died. Again, this is something I don't understand. Maybe I never will. Oh, I think I read something about (I think it was Tancredo) but, anyway, one of the people that was running for office that was extremely anti-immigration, recently went to Mexico and had some type of speech with the residents there - much like the political speech-rallies we have here.
or arizona’s own i.n.s. dynasty ?...
based on that great wall of china’s ?...