Arizona Taking Donations to Pay for Border Fencing

Posted on Jul 20, 2011

The state of Arizona / az.gov

This provocative image from Arizona’s new border-building donation website calls into question the security of government-funded border control.

An Arizona law allowing the state to build its own security fence along the border with Mexico went into effect Wednesday, and the private donations necessary to fund the project have begun stacking up.

A website for the cause went live at midnight and has already collected more than $10,000 of the $50 million needed to fund the fence. The project is not supported by the federal government, which earlier this month announced the Southwest border to be secure, and the number of illegal immigrants “substantially” down in recent years. Instead, Arizona will rely on private donations, the willingness of public and private landowners to build on their land, and cheap convict labor. —BF

Reuters:

Smith said an advisory committee would determine what type of fencing would be built with donated funds, and where it would be erected along the desert state’s 370-mile border with Mexico.

“It’s an American problem, not just an Arizona problem,” said Smith, highlighting the border state’s role as an entry point for smugglers and illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.

“Those people don’t just stay in Arizona, they infiltrate the rest of the country, and the rest of the country has to understand the peril that we exist in if we do not address just the outright disaster happening on this border,” he added.

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