Need for, opportunities from the border barrier

Re “In Texas, Little Support for Putting Up Fences,” Oct. 1

Ray M. Keck III, president of Texas A&M; International University in Laredo, says building a wall to stop illegal immigration is a misuse of resources “at a time when healthcare and education so desperately need better funding.”

Has Keck ever stopped to consider that, in large part, our educational and healthcare systems wouldn’t need more funding if they didn’t have to provide free services to millions of illegal immigrants who should be getting those services from the Mexican government?

Ironically, The Times ran a separate story in the same issue proclaiming that illegal immigrants strain services.

JESS MONEY

Redondo Beach

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Re “Border Barrier Approved,” Sept. 30

Our government estimates that the proposed 700 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border will cost up to $9 billion. The world is littered with the ruins of walls. Overcoming them and other barriers sparks human creativity and engineering genius.

Does anyone in government read history books? Walls, moats, fences, rivers, mountain ranges and oceans are mere inconveniences.

Opportunity is a magnet. It attracts and holds people. Let us not spend billions to keep Mexicans out of the U.S. Let’s spend billions to give them more reasons not to come here illegally. At least let’s contract Mexican companies to build and maintain the wall. The jobs will reduce immigration more than the wall itself.

JERRY COUCH

Prosser, Wash.

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A 700-mile wall along our southern border? It’s nice to know that the Republican Congress has decided to adopt some of the most enlightened and innovative thinking of the 15th century. What’s next? Drawbridges and moats?

JOHN BLUMENTHAL

Westlake Village