militarized fences make bad neighbors

really. Not like Fox or Calderon is actually going to do anything about this, and kind of interesting to note the huge disconnect between what folks on the border are saying and Calderon's waffling. Not sure why it's news that people get insulted when you put up a gigantic fence patrolled by the national guard and forcibly keep them on el otro lado, but i guess it gives cnn a rare excuse to give a view of the border other than the one of anti-immigrant outrage so often mobilized by Lou Dobbs...

The Mexican government this week sent a diplomatic note to Washington criticizing the plan for 700 miles of new fencing along the border. Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called it an "offense" and said Wednesday his office was considering taking the issue to the United Nations.

But Ruben Aguilar, the spokesman for Mexican President Vicente Fox, said Thursday that Mexico had ruled out that possibility. He added he was "confident" the additional fencing would never become a reality because an immigration accord would eventually replace it.

President-elect Felipe Calderon Thursday criticized the U.S. plan, but said the case is a bilateral issue that should not be taken to any international organization.

"I think it is a deplorable decision that has been made by the United States Congress for the construction of this wall, and it does not solve our common problem, which is emigration," Calderon told a news conference in Santiago, Chile.

Guillermo Alonzo, a migration expert at the Tijuana-based Colegio de La Frontera Norte, said fences will force migrants to look find new routes into the United States through more dangerous terrain.

"When migrants are determined to cross, they find a way to jump the fences," Alonzo said. "Walls don't stop anything."

Alonzo cited the construction of a fence between Tijuana and San Diego, known in Mexico as "the tortilla wall." It was completed in the 1990s and forced migrants into the sparsely populated and dangerous Arizona desert.

While there are walls at various points along the border, the one in Tijuana is the longest stretch, running 14 miles west from the Otay border crossing to the Pacific Ocean.

The wall is a symbol of the divisive immigration issue. It has become a kind of shrine marked with graffiti, crosses, photos and remembrances of those who have lost their lives trying to sneak into the United States. Some families divided by the border even meet at the fence, talking through the metal wires.