(Image Source: Hispanically Speaking News)
BY: KYLIE MCGIVERN
You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy.
Americans are on the fence regarding Wednesday’s controversial launch of a government website seeking $50 million in donations- all, in the name of homeland security. KXTV reports...
“Arizona launched a website where people can make donations to pay for a fence along the state’s border with Mexico. It’s buildtheborderfence.com...”
Mercury News reports the website received more than $31,000 in the the first 14 hours, according to an Arizona Senate spokesperson.
Arizona’s Republican State Senator Steve Smith sponsored the fence project legislation. In an interview with FOX News, he says the response has been overwhelming.
“I cannot tell you the out-pour of just jubilation quite honestly from across the country. We’ve gotten phone calls and letters and e-mails from all over the country, saying ‘is it July 20th yet?’”
Smith countered critics, assuring...
“Fences are extraordinarily effective. One needs to look no further than in Yuma, Arizona, where we’ve done this before. We built a triple layer fence there, we had a 95 percent success rate of stopping illegal activity over that border, in that area of Arizona. They work.”
Currently fencing covers about one-third of the 2,000-mile U.S. - Mexico border. In 2009, the federal government reportedly spent $1 to $2 million for every mile of border fencing. WBBH reports what lawmakers have in mind...
“Under legislation approved earlier this year, the state would use the donated money and inmate labor to build the fencing, likely on state or privately owned property. Republic lawmakers who supported the fence legislation see the fundraising project as a simple way to pay for securing the border."
Simple, huh? Some say, the issue is anything but. Members of the Arizona Cattle Grower’s Association own portions of land along the border. An Effingham Herald blogger quoted one member, saying,
“The border situation is so complex and so diverse that you truly need a more comprehensive plan to secure that border...You can’t just have a fence built and walk away and say it’s done.”
Another issue complicating border security is the game of escalation. MSNBC references Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s warning from six years ago.
“You show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border. That’s the way the border works.”
Transcript by Newsy.
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