We spend so much money fighting drugs and border security, why can't we dig a canal between the US and Mexico?
Wouldn't building a lock or canal system across our border make it much easier to control traffic in and out of the US? It seems like we are willing to spend an infinite amount of money to try to control our border in what appears to be a futile effort anyway. Also, if big enough, wouldn't it help passage of ships from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean? And depending on desalination technology...possibly solar powered...wouldn't this help agriculture in these areas? I know you would have to rebuild roads and make new bridges, but wouldn't all this also help the US economy? Construction workers would likely relocate their families to the border areas, bringing money into the local economies. Even Mexican citizens can be employed to help with the construction, helping them make money.
Other - Politics & Government - 11 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Take Panama and multiply it by about 100. Reconsider.
2 :
good idea...make it deep and pumpt water into it...but there has to be a couple bridges for traffic,...
3 :
Because it would be quite deep in some areas, the entire border is not at sea level. Would be much easier to build two fences with a death zone in between the two.
4 :
The canal would have to be extremely long. It is much too long to be cost effective but it would give the U.S. control over goods going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific again. We lost control of the Panama Canal after the fool Jimmy Carter sold it to the Chinese.
5 :
We already built a huge canal further south in Panama. We have no need for one further north. Also, The Panama location was chosen because of the least amount of land that needed to be moved. If you look at a globe or even Google Earth you will see what a massive undertaking that would be. It is impractical.
6 :
A canal won't stop anything... I know several Mexicans that know how to swim. I also know a few that own boats. This is a dumb idea.
7 :
That will not work but thanks for trying.*
8 :
You are talking about spending trillions and trillions of dollars with an uncertain chance of success. First of all, you are talking about a very long distance to dig. That is over 1900 miles. That would take decades to dig out. The environmental impact would be tremendous. Plus, where do you plan on getting the water to fill this thing? Even if you have a great desalination plant going at the Gulf of Mexico, you will not be able to produce enough water to keep this thing filled. 1900 miles, lets say the thing is 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep. That would take 75,044,571,400 gallons of water to fill it. If your desalination plant can produce a million gallons a day then it will take over 200 years to fill this thing up. I know it does rain from time to time in these areas but I am figuring that the rain will compensate for evaporation. Plus, there is some really tough terrain out there. You are talking about digging up mountains. Not an easy task. Even after it was all said and done it would not go a long way towards slowing down illegal immigration or the drug flow. Unless you have security guards watching every inch of the thing then people will not have a hard time swimming across or boating across or building their own bridges or flying over it or some other imaginative method of getting across. Lets say that you plan in hiring security guards to watch every inch of the thing. Lets say one guard every 500 feet (that is a lot of area for them to watch but oh well). You have 3 8 hour shifts and each guard makes $25,000 a year. That would take 60,000 guards and would cost the U.S. $1,504,800,000. That is just salaries and that is without management or benefits or structures or training or equipment and various other costs. In the end, this idea is not technically feasible, econically viable, or able to fix the problem it is proposed to fix.
9 :
Nope it it is an absurd idea and the initial cost would be astronomical due to the fact that the U.S. Mexican border spans approximately 1,969 miles. To put this into perspective the Panama Canal which is considered to be one of the greatest achievements in engineering history spans a mere 50 miles from deep water to deep water. I don't have the time to really get into the logistics of the whole project but it would be a very expensive endeavor that would do absolutely nothing to stop illegal immigration or drug trafficking to the U.S.
10 :
Wouldn't do any good. Beaners can swim. Why do you think they're called wetbacks?
11 :
Because our politicians are far from aligned about what to do about illegal immigration, or even admitting that there is a problem. I suspect it has a lot to with major corporations loving employing illegals below minimum wages.
