Letter: Millions in prevention worth billions in cure

Friday, April 7, 2006 | 7:13 a.m.

Twenty years ago, in a phone conversation with a bureaucrat in the State Department, I outlined what I thought was a viable plan to virtually stop the illegal migration across our border and seriously hamper drug importation.

I suggested that the government build an electrified fence - along with signs in Spanish saying it was an electrified barrier - from Tijuana, Mexico, to Brownsville, Texas - with watchtowers manned every few hundred yards by either Border Patrol or military guards.

I suggested the problem America would face if nothing was done. Today we are struggling with those problems. Why? Because of bureaucratic smugness and complacency.

My plan would cost millions of dollars, I was told. Well, now we are spending tens of billions of dollars. Of course we also have seen greatly increased crime, and disease is on the rise along with medical and school disasters.

How typical of Washington - penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Walter E. Gunther, Las Vegas

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