Why Was I Wrong About the Fence
by Glenn Spencer -- October 7, 2007

On September 11 KOLD TV ran a report in which I said Chertoff would not complete 20 miles of new pedestrian fencing. I was wrong. Chertoff finished about 63 miles of new fencing, but 35 miles of that total was fencing east of Yuma I didn't think he would build. Without that Yuma fence, Chertoff finished 28 miles. Of that total, 7.9 miles was built west of Calexico, California that I didn't expect to see, but did.

When I flew the Operation B.E.E.F. mission to Yuma on September 24, the tape starts this way:

"Mark, start Yuma run 0938. This should be very interesting because if he is going to make any significant additions it would have to be here." (Watch this video)

The 0938 refers to the GPS mark I made on the navigation GPS.

As one who flies the border ever month, I knew that the only place along the border where Secretary Chertoff could make any significant additions to the border fence was along the southern boundary of the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range. Why? Because I knew he had already installed vehicle barriers and that mesh panels could be installed on these vehicle barriers to make a pedestrian barriers fairly quickly. But I didn't think he would do it.

American Border Patrol had reported seeing hundreds and hundreds of vehicle tracks leading off Mexican Highway 2 onto the Goldwater Bombing Range. This makes sense because a vehicle could cross forty miles of desert fairly quickly. But the idea that people would try to walk across this section of the desert simply didn't make sense.

I should have known that Mr. Chertoff was feeling the heat about the fence and that he had to get his numbers up and that the Yuma/Goldwater fence was the easiest place to do this.

Still, Chertoff claims to have completed 70 miles of new fencing, but that is not correct. Five miles of new fencing near Naco that he claims has been completed has not been and another seven mile segment near Sasabe is only half finished.

The small pieces of fence that Chertoff has completed elsewhere along the border will do little or nothing to stop illegal immigration. The fences are so short people will simply walk around them. In some cases the new pedestrian fence is built right up against a hill where Mesquite trees provide a ready-made ladder. (More on this later.) For a fence to be effective, it must be too wide to get around, and too tough to climb over, such as the San Diego fence.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006 dictates the construction of at least 700 miles of 2-layer fencing along the border with Mexico. In the year since the president signed that bill, Chertoff has finished 63 miles of single-layer fencing, At this rate it will take at least 22 years to finish the job.

It is vital that American Border Patrol continue to perform Operation B.E.E.F. to make sure the American People know the truth about the border.