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Politics

After Newt, Two Walls

Jacob Sullum | 12.1.2011 5:38 PM

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Today Newt Gingrich, who at last week's Republican presidential debate said "I'm prepared to take the heat" for declining to endorse the mass deportation of all 12 million unauthorized U.S. residents, sought to fend off charges that he is soft on immigration by joining Michele Bachmann in pledging to build not one but two fences spanning the entire border with Mexico. Two is better than one, obviously, but surely good old American know-how can improve on this plan. Some suggestions via Twitter:

"Two fences. The first covered in razor blades. The second with stationery prone to cause paper cuts. Then, a moat of orange juice." (Radley Balko)

"As a warning to illegal immigrants, we make the fence *out of* illegal immigrants." (Ditto)

"Put a 1,000 ft tall, ultra-realistic painting of an ocean all along the border facing south. They'll think we're gone & go home." (Modeled Behavior)

"Hire Wiley Coyote to draw pictures of tunnel entrances on outside of stone wall." (Curiouser George)

"Why ANNOUNCE the number of fences? do we want to just SEND our enemies our plans?" (John Perich)

"Alligators and electricity! Wait. I think that's taken." (Michael Demmons)

Other ideas?

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NEXT: Official Warning to Iowans: Ice Is Slippery

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason. He is the author, most recently, of Beyond Control: Drug Prohibition, Gun Regulation, and the Search for Sensible Alternatives (Prometheus Books).

PoliticsPolicyImmigrationRepublican Presidential NominationPresidential Candidates
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