Won't help by itself
It would be helpful if you would publish some pictures of the types of fences that Israel is using along its border. It does not use a wall exclusively. High-tech electronics along with a fence that will keep animals on the correct side is mostly used. A high wall is used in cities. The most effective resource used is rapid-response forces after illegal border crossing is detected.
We need to speak of immigration reform and security. A wall exclusively will not do the job. President Trump needs to drop the wall, and Speaker Pelosi should be willing to accept various forms of border control. Show the pictures and hopefully the public will understand there are better forms of border control. Some limited wall would be useful, but over the entire border, no.
Start talking on both sides and stop the government shutdown insanity.
DALE GOSSIEN
Little Rock
A plan for the border
I may be the only person who can do this, but I can solve the immigration crisis quickly and bigly. Now, here's the plan. Feel free to take notes.
We contact all the Hollywood movie studios and ask if we can rent every fog machine they've got. We arrange for them to be delivered all together on the same night. It will be dark, and the border guards won't see what's going on. Then, at a given signal, we start all the machines at the exact same time. Mega-fog everywhere!
While no one can see what we're doing and as quickly as we can, we distribute bottles of water, shoes for the children, blond wigs, blue contact lenses and Norwegian passports to all of them. As soon as they get to the border, they'll be welcomed on sight and ushered in. Easy peazey. The president will be thrilled, declare some sort of victory, forget about the "wall/slats" fiasco, and take full credit for solving the crisis. (Don't worry; I won't "rat" on him. I'll let him have his moment with his base.)
Ridiculous? Of course. But, if we're honest with ourselves, we all know what is behind this wall foolishness. We've lost our compassion, our common sense and our moral standing as a leader among nations. Fear not the terrified 5-year-old with a juice box. Fear, instead, the elderly tyrant with a soapbox.
LINDA A. FARRELL
Bella Vista
The truth is out there
Congress and POTUS are creating and funding a new branch of the military to protect us from the possibility of alien invasion of the kind from another planet. Congress and POTUS cannot agree upon a wall supposedly designed to protect us from illegal aliens.
Given these facts, it seems to me that POTUS and Congress are saying that a real threat exists from aliens who are not from planet Earth.
What do they know that we don't know?
FLORA SALYERS
Conway
In search of problem
I noted in Saturday's paper that our governor has congratulated our president for bringing attention to the humanitarian crisis at the southern border. As I understand it, this, indeed, is what the "crisis" there is all about. Drugs and criminals may well be problems, but the real crisis is humanitarian and it is due to the unforeseen numbers of families and children who are trying to escape crime, gang threats, and/or insecurity in their home countries.
This act of seeking asylum is protected under international law and we have an established procedure to deal with it. Our procedure requires the asylum-seekers to report to a legal border entry point for processing. The problem with that is there are not nearly enough people or facilities to process the large number of seekers in a timely manner. At one entry point, I read, while hundreds were waiting, the border agents were processing six asylum requests per day. Therefore, many have resorted to crossing the border wherever they can and turning themselves in as soon as possible to border control agents whom they actively seek out.
While a wall may solve part of the problem, a much better and unquestionably more humane short-term solution would be to increase the number of processing personnel and facilities. One example: Current figures show an average time spent waiting for a court hearing of an asylum claim in the U.S. is over 700 days. This means these families are living, working, and learning English for almost two years before learning if their asylum request will be granted or not. A long-term solution would be to increase assistance to ameliorate the problems in the home countries.
A beautiful southern border wall, even if paid for by Mexico, is a great example of a solution in search of a problem. And holding the country hostage to get that wall is outrageous.
RICHARD PICARD
Little Rock
Not in our interests
Yes, we need secure borders, but that isn't going to happen with Trump's $5 billion "wall." Not when migrants with hacksaws can make it look like a Swiss cheese and drug runners can tunnel under it. So why does Trump want the wall so badly? Well, we know that he can't stand the idea of losing, but I believe there's more to it than that. This wall would be a monument to Trump's over-inflated ego, as well as a tangible symbol of fear and loathing of outsiders with which to rally his xenophobic base.
True border security would be better and more cheaply served by a fleet of drones and some airborne Border Patrol teams. But that's not grandiose or bellicose enough to indulge Trump's insecurities. He'd rather spend billions of your tax dollars on pointless bombast than on effective solutions to the problem. And here's the kicker: The Republicans just gave corporations and the rich a massive tax cut, so guess who's on the hook for paying the lion's share for this folly? Hint: It isn't Mexico.
On top of it all, Trump has shut down the government over this foolishness. Care to guess whose interests that serves? Hint: Not America's.
ALEX MIRONOFF
Fayetteville
Editorial on 01/17/2019