Fence alone can't plug porous border

Oft-breached barrier doesn't stop politicians from citing it

	A new border fence designed to stop vehicle traffic at the U.S.-Mexico border runs for several miles in San Miguel, Ariz.  View related photos
Ross D. Franklin / AP

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

 
updated 7:10 p.m. CT, Thurs., May 27, 2010
NOGALES, Ariz. - The fence rises from the rock and hardscrabble of the desert floor, a formidable 15-foot-high curtain of corrugated metal that stretches into the mirage of heat and distance. Newer sections feature 20-foot high steel columns, deeply planted, narrowly spaced, so no human slips between.

The start-and-stop span — 646 miles long — has become a fierce polemic, a bumper sticker, a popular backdrop for campaign commercials during an election year with another sulfurous immigration debate.

The best known TV spot features Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain kicking along a dusty road in this hilly border city, fuming to his companion, the Pinal County sheriff, about drugs and immigrant smugglers and kidnappings. Wearing his Navy baseball cap and squinting into the sun, McCain could be rounding the corner to the gunfight at the OK Corral.

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Birthright Citizenship Law Proposed in Arizona

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Obama orders 1,200 Guard troops to border

$500 million also sought to improve protection, law enforcement

Ross D. Franklin / AP file

A United States National Guard unit patrols the Arizona-Mexico border in Sasabe, Ariz., in this Jan. 19, 2007, file photo. President Obama on Tuesday pledged 1,200 National Guardsman but Arizona's two senators say that's not enough.

msnbc.com news services

updated 2 hours, 29 minutes ago

TUCSON, Ariz. - President Barack Obama on Tuesday ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to boost security along the U.S.-Mexico border, pre-empting Republican plans to try to force votes on such a deployment. 

Obama will also request $500 million for border protection and law enforcement activities, according to lawmakers and administration officials.

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The president announced the deployment shortly after he returned from lunch with the 41-member Senate Republican Caucus, who told him that U.S. borders first need to be secured before work could start on a sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.  Arizona's two Republican senators said the deployment wasn't enough.

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States Gearing Up to Follow Arizona's Lead on Immigration

While Arizona faces the scorn of the White House and local governments across the country for its immigration law

, lawmakers in several states are looking to follow the Grand Canyon State's lead.

Lawmakers and politicians in Texas, Rhode Island, Utah and Georgia are among those who, in the month since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law, have announced plans to introduce similar legislation.

The officials say states need to take matters into their own hands to tackle illegal immigration and in turn reduce the taxpayer cost associated with large undocumented populations in their hospitals, schools and prisons. They draw inspiration directly from the Arizona law, bucking the trend of local and state officials who have protested Arizona and called for boycotts against the state.

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Arizona Boycotts Could Hit Hispanic Hospitality Workers

The raft of boycotts being imposed on Arizona over its immigration law could up end hitting Hispanic workers as hard as anyone.

Hispanics make up a huge chunk of the state's hospitality and service sector workforce -- and with city governments and organizations pulling the plug on travel and conventions in Arizona, state officials point out that Hispanic workers stand to lose.

They say it makes little sense for officials protesting the Arizona law out of concern that it would subject Hispanic immigrants to racial profiling to register their dismay by targeting the tourism industry.

"These boycotts could be hurting the very same people that they profess to be helping," said Garrick Taylor, spokesman for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The worst-case-scenario estimates for the financial impact of lost convention business alone are staggering. Phoenix officials say their city could lose up to $90 million in the next five years over the protests. The figure represents not just lost convention and hotel fees but other money tourists would otherwise spend in the city.

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