One local blogger, an open-borders advocate, recently wrote this.

Contrary to popular belief, supporting the building of a wall between Mexico and the United States is not a conservative value. Instead it is fiscally, incredibly, stupid. Spending $7Billion on a wall instead of spending $7Billion on law enforcement of those who hire illegal workers is an incredibly stupid idea but one that is easy to understand by the simple-minded who can't think past the one-liners. One that makes true fiscal conservatives shake their heads in disbelief. Candidates supporting building a wall are courting the ultra-right wingers and ignorant hate mongers and will lose the support of the true fiscally conservatives as well as the liberal and moderate voters.

Don't you just love the tolerance and respect dripping from every word that John wrote there? And don't you love the fact that he ignores the fact that most of us "ultra-right wingers and ignorant hate mongers" are actually quite supportive of employer sanctions, and that it is his own political allies who are desperate to stop employer sanctions through the courts because it might stop the hiring of illegals?

And did you notice the one thing that he didn't claim -- he never says that a fence won't work to stop illegal immigration.

Because it does.

PALOMAS, MEXICO — At this fabled border crossing, where the last armed conflict between the United States and Mexico flared, the rancorous debate over the new U.S. anti-immigrant fence has been resolved.

The fence works, residents north and south of it say. At least it works for now on this snippet of the line.

"You hear it all the time: Fences don't work. Fences don't work," said Mark Winder, a transplanted New Englander and part-time deputy sheriff who lives on a small ranch outside Columbus, N.M., where a 3-mile stretch of wall was completed in August. "I live 2½ miles from the border, and the fence is working."

Many merchants agree in Palomas, once a sleepy farm town, now a booming haven for smugglers.

"The fence has destroyed the economy here," said Fabiola Cuellar, a hardware-store clerk on the main street of Palomas who used to sell supplies to the throngs heading north from here. "Things are going back to the way they were before."

Of course, with only about one-fifth of the fence complete, migrants from Mexico and other countries who had planned to cross the border illegally in places such as Palomas-Columbus can simply go elsewhere.

And if you read the article, you will find out that American property owners report the same thing -- the fence is stopping illegals from entering the US and trespassing upon (and destroying) their property. I can only imagine the resulting drop in crime statistics that accompanies this decrease.

H/T RWN