US-Mexican Border Fence or Great Wall of Mexico

US President George W. Bush signed in October 2006 the Secure Fence Act. The legislation authorizes the construction of approximately 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000-mile US-Mexican border. The legislation represents the second portion of a two-part plan to tackle illegal immigration in the US; the first half of the legislation creates a $34.8 billion fund for tackling immigration issues, including the money to build the 700-mile fence. The project meets strong opposition by Mexican high officials and it is expecting to complicate US-Mexico relations. Critics of the fence include locals in border communities, who feel that a border fence could interfere with irrigation, harm wildlife, and disrupt Mexican consumers and investors that positively contribute to the local economy. In May 2007, the International Boundary and Water Commission said that construction of the fence could violate a boundary treaty between the United States and Mexico.

The process of implementation of the law is still in progress. In USA it affects mainly the owners of lands near the border. For example, US Western District Court of Texas has ordered the City of Eagle Pass, Texas to temporarily turn over 233 acres of its land to the federal government so it can begin construction of a 670-mile fence on the border between the US and Mexico. The lawsuit was started by the US Department of Justice against the city for turning over the land property. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing over 100 court cases against landowners along the US-Mexico border who have refused to allow construction of the border fence on their properties.
In the US Southern District of Texas the judge Hanen released an order directing 10 property owners in Cameron County, Texas to provide the federal government access to their land for 180 days so it can begin surveying for a 670-mile fence along the US-Mexico border. The federal government had asked the judge to rule on the case without informing the property owners, a permissible move under eminent domain law, but the judge ordered that the owners should be alerted before the hearing held last Friday. The Cameron County and Eagle Pass cases are the first DHS lawsuits to have been decided by a judge. Several landowners have given the government access to their land, including some who oppose the fence. But many others in Texas, Arizona and California have refused, prompting the lawsuits.
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The US government plans to approve the first stretch of "virtual fencing" for border control, which will run for 28 miles along the US-Mexico border southwest of Tucson, Arizona. The virtual fence, developed to control illegal immigration and drug smuggling, includes 98-foot unmanned towers equipped with radar, sensors and cameras. Normal border patrol fences now stretch over 294 miles of the border. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said that some of the technology used in Arizona's virtual fence may be used elsewhere along the border. DHS laid out its plans to put up a virtual fence along the US borders with Canada and Mexico in September 2006 and announced that Boeing had been awarded a $67 million contract to begin the project. Computer software glitches have delayed the testing and use of the fence until Boeing, the technology's creator, largely fixed the problems in early December 2007.

Measures against the illegal immigration - OK, but what about if there is a sudden need of emigration ...

Sources: Jurist, GlobalSecurity, AP