A Fence Plus More

I do not believe that a border fence will be effective by itself. Here are the arguments supporting this from a colleague of mine:

Fences work best near large urban areas, where the illegals can overwhelm the effectiveness of any small contingent of enforcement police through a sudden swarming action and can quickly blend ("disappear") into areas with similar culture and language. Thus the fence near San Diego has reduced illegal entry there tremendously.

Virtual fences can only work if there's a will to enforce the law with boots on the ground, and since the lack of such a will has caused the problem in the first place, an expensive virtual fence is unlikely to do much except serve as a firearms target for coyotes. Bush promotes the virtual fence idea of course because it gives the appearance that he's doing something when he really isn't -- except wasting our money and stalling to run out the clock on his term of office.

Of course the most important thing is to remove the rewards of coming here illegally -- employment, driver's license, education, free healthcare for the putatively indigent, sanctuary cities, unwillingness to enforce the law. The courts, the government at all levels, and the cheap labor lobby have strenuously fought any such removal.