The U.S.-Mexico border stretches for more than 2000 miles across very rugged terrain. It has become a symbol of insecurity and a complete failure of control. And now, it has become the pivotal political issue between the two countries and the hot button issue in the 2016 presidential election.
Why?
Simply because illegal Mexican (and other) undocumented aliens use it to traffic in drugs, guns, and persons.
Mexico is poor; the U.S. is rich. Economic opportunities encourage a near constant (over 20 million over the decades) flow of migrants into the United States. Terrorists can do the same. To date, it cannot be stopped.
About 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants now reside in the U.S., or 3.5 percent of our nation’s population. Mexicans account for half of the unauthorized immigrants, according to a recent Pew survey. Most of the others come from Central America. Six states account for 60 percent of the illegals (California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois). Nevada has the largest share, at eight percent of the unauthorized in its state population. About seven percent of all K-12 students now have at least one unauthorized immigrant parent, Pew notes. The problem goes on and on, unabated.
As Donald Trump puts it, the problem is: “A nation without borders is not a nation.”
The solution: A Star Wars, hi-tech electronic Wall that uses satellites, mathematics, and drones to stop any and everything from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Don’t laugh!
It worked for Ronal Reagan. It brought down the Soviet Union, and it will work here. The technology exists and is getting better all the time.
This would be a new multifaceted approach to combat illegal immigration.
By using sophisticated analytical models, high resolution satellite imagery and loads and loads of big data (predictive analytics), applying proven algorithms, we can now predict where the flows will take place and deploy both border guards and laser (Taser) guns from armed drones to stun the perpetrators – thereby thwarting illegal entry of both people and drugs into the United States.
This is a game changer. Technology that will utilize aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, combined with other secret technology tools to reduce the flow across the border to close to zero.
Much of this technology is presently in use by the U.S. military looking for the bad guys planting IEDs in Afghanistan and Iraq. The marvel of these technologies is that they provide an engineered solution where others have failed. The key is the satellites and the math, counting on the UAVs integrated into a total solution package. The UAVs are in effect our eyes in the sky. The live streams direct the drones and the rangers like chessmen on a board.
The illegals will not only be scared to death but they will also be instantly detected. They will no longer be able to operate with impunity. Game over.
Mexican citizens who work in the U.S. send billions of dollars back to Mexico every year: In 2015, the Government Accountability Office estimated that amount as $25 billion in remittances. The illegal Mexican workforce in the US has increased by 125 percent in the last decade, which translates into lost jobs for Americans, large social costs, and unbearable burdens on our educational, health and welfare infrastructure in the communities and states where they poach off the U.S. taxpayers.
Drug violence between the warring criminal cartels threatens security in Mexico and all the cities and towns along the entire border.
Tightening border security is not an option, but a necessity.
The cost of this proposed high tech Wall is estimated to be $20 billion. As Trump has firmly stated, repeatedly on numerous occasions, “Mexico will pay for the Wall.”
The question is how?
Here is the answer. First, we impound all remittance payments to Mexico and Central America derived from illegal wages. Next, we increase all visa fees to all Mexicans. Third, we increase fees on all border crossing cards and worker visas from Mexico. Fourth, we impose a temporary and special tariff on Mexican goods at all ports of entry. And last, we commence a special tax of $30 per barrel on all Mexican oil & gas imported to the U.S.
Guess what? Wall paid for.
Make no mistake: The U.S. must also coordinate the new hi-tech Wall with other measures including: the immediate return of all criminal aliens, detention, no more catch-and-release of all those apprehended in the future, closing down all sanctuary cities, enhancing penalties for overstaying on a visitor visa, pausing all new green cards for foreign workers, ending birthright citizenship, and hiring many more ICE employees to enforce our laws.
This is the way to solve the problem using a high tech total solution and having Mexico pay for it.
Don’t say it can’t be done. Let’s do it, President Trump.
Theodore Roosevelt Malloch is a professor at Oxford University and author of a new memoir, DAVOS, ASPEN & YALE: My Life Behind the Elite Curtain as a Global Sherpa, WND Books, 2016.