The Border

     Since beginning of history, borders between countries or kingdoms have been a source of problems.  Usually, the richer countries or kingdoms were always trying to protect their territory, to keep out the unwanted, while their poorer neighbors were constantly trying to get into the rich neighbors' back yard.  This has been the standard scenario for centuries.
     In ancient China, the Chinese built the Great Wall to keep out the northern barbarians.  The first part of the wall was completed around 220 BC and the final portions were built during the Ming Dynasty.  Overall, the Great Wall snakes around China's northern and eastern frontier for about 5500 miles, an amazing distance, and an incredible engineering feat.  But, as huge as the Great Wall is, it was unable to keep out the barbarians.  What the barbarians did was to either bribe the gate keepers to let them in or circumvent the wall and enter China through portion that did not have the wall.  That is how the Mongols were able to enter China in the 13th Century, a part of their invading force entered by bribing the gate keeper in the northern part and the other part of the force went around and entered through areas in Manchuria where the wall was not yet built.  Thus the Mongols not only entered China but also accomplished a classic pincer maneuver!
     In the 17th Century, the Manchus entered China by way of southwestern Manchuria where portions of the wall were not built.  Once the Mongols conquered China in the 13th Century and established the Yuan Dynasty, all construction of the Great Wall stopped.  Mongols feared no one and felt no need to finish building the wall, therefore, they left open gaps through which the Manchus invaded China some four centuries later!
     The Great Wall was not only a tremendous physical barrier, but it was always heavily guarded by an army, so it was next to impossible to penetrate, yet both the Mongols and the Manchus managed to do it with relative ease.  So, I guess nothing is for certain!
     In modern times, the Berlin Wall went up in 1961 to prevent the East Germans from crossing into West Germany.  The Berlin Wall and the entire border was heavily guarded and anyone trying to cross was shot.  Many East Germans perished trying to escape to the West.  Still, they kept trying in all sorts of ingenious ways, until the wall finally came down in 1989! (The actual demolishing of the wall took place much later).  In case of the Berlin Wall, it was the opposite of the Great Wall of China.  It was built to keep its people in, not to keep out West Germans, although it served both purposes!
     However, not all borders have man made physical barriers.  The border between China (Manchuria) and North Korea is two rivers.  The Tuman River in the east and Yalu River in the west.  Both rivers flow from the great mountain range known as Paek Tu San, the Long White Mountains.  Crossing the mountain range is impossible for most, so the two rivers are the most common crossing points.  The North Korean side of the border is heavily guarded and anyone trying to cross is shot on sight.  The Chinese side of the border is also heavily guarded, and anyone apprehended at the border is simply sent back across immediately.  With terrible dangers facing them with an almost impossible chance of making it across, the poor starving North Koreans continue to try to cross into Manchuria. 
     Once they cross successfully and manage to evade Chinese guards, they are "home free" so-to-speak."  Manchuria has historically been heavily populated with Koreans going back to ancient times.  Chinese have tried to make Manchuria more "Chinese" by moving large number of Han Chinese into the territory.  Still, there are large communities, especially in southern Manchuria that are made up entirely of ethnic Koreans.  Korean is still the lingua franca in those regions so new escapees can easily melt into the countryside.  However, because of the difficulty and dangers involved, the number of North Koreans managing to escape is not so great as to cause alarm for North Korean regime.
     Our border with Mexico is a totally different animal.  We have had more or less an open border in the past, since the Mexican War when we took a big chunk of Mexican territory and called it our own.  Crossing the southern border in either direction was not much of a problem.  Mexican workers, particularly seasonal agricultural workers, were always welcomed by the farmers in the West.  We established a "Border Crossing Card" system which allowed Mexicans to come and go at will.  Of course there were always those who crossed without any documentation.  But, as the economic situation in Mexico became worst, and the population kept growing, the number of illegals seeking work in "Del Norte" (the North) or "El Otro Lado" (the other side) became greater and greater to where it reach the point it has today.
     There are all sorts of promises and suggestions made by politicians and the current presidential candidates.  The simple fact remains that no one is actually offering any real solutions.  That is because the real solution would not be "politically correct."  The real solution would require one of the two, either complete capitulation, letting all illegals enter at will and reap the benefits of legal residents and citizens, or take drastic action and provide rigid enforcement at the border and within the country.  Building a bigger and longer fence is not the solution.  It does provide a physical barrier, but unless we are willing to back that with sufficient armed patrolling of the fences, then the physical barriers would be of no use.  So, although we might go the extra step and spend a lot of money building a bigger fence, I don't think we would be willing to support the new fence with additional armed border patrol or use of National Guard troops to safeguard our southern border.
     Everything revolves around "political correctness."  Who knows, the public may be swayed to believe that a fence would be the answer, although historically it has been proven that physical barriers without actual rigid enforcement, really do not prevent anything!  Yes, we might spend billions of tax payers money building an elaborate, high tech fence, the "new Great Wall."  But without actual boots on the ground, border patrol or armed troops to guard the "new Great Wall," it will simply be good money wasted!  Of course, our government is a master at wasting "good" money!
The only thing that will stem the flow of the illegals is actual enforcement, which we are unwilling to do.  It is just too un-"PC" for us to apply rigid enforcement.  This would entail "racial profiling" by stopping suspected illegals, and it would require stopping illegal border crossers at gun point and forcing them back.  The current system is rather silly, wasting all the time and manpower bringing illegals back to "process," then putting them in holding areas before deportation, if deportation does take place.  The current system would have to be thrown out.  The Border Patrol or National Guard should just stop the crossers and turn them back across, nothing more.  This will not completely stop the illegal flow, but it will be much better than it is today!
     But, that would never happen.  There would be such an outcry from the liberal camp that no politician would be willing to take such heat.  So, what is going to happen?  It will just get worst until our wimpy politicians will capitulate, more than likely grant full rights to all illegals and open the southern border.  We might as well dismantle all border crossing stations.  Why waste all that money maintaining border crossing points and paying salaries to Border Patrol and ICE, in fact, why have Border Patrol at all?