The fence, any fence, hasa certain basic appeal: separate Us from Them, the latter consisting of the bogeymen of your choice. With the immigration crisis in full bloom, the idea ofa fence sounded as simple and as direct as a solution could be. Stop them from coming by stopping them from coming. 

Ah, if reality was so black and white. Or, in the case, so American and Mexican.

Through most of Arizona,prime fence-building territory, the desert is essentially empty, and a fence doesn’t accomplish much except killing off some animals and, as Sheriff Joe likes to say, increasing the sales of ladders and shovels, to get over or under the barrier. Texas is another matter, with much of the border region more populated. The close physical, economic and cultural relationship between somecities on both sides of the border means that the fence has a different, and not quite so simple, effect on life.

An example from AP: The steel fence that the U.S. government wants to build along the Mexican border would do more than slice through the University of Texas' Brownsville campus and cut off the golf course from the rest of the school.

School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the U.S. and Mexico.

The university — built close to the Rio Grande on land where the United States and Mexico traded cannon blasts during the Mexican-American War 160 years ago — recruits Mexican students, offers government and business classes in English and Spanish and turns out sorely needed bilingual teachers. It has a biological field station in Mexico and hosts educators at a Binational Conference every spring. About 400 of the 17,000 students are from Mexico, and more than half of them commute across the river to class.

The fence, if built as envisioned by the U.S. Border Patrol, would run a mile north of the Rio Grande, the international boundary, cutting off about 180 acres of the 465-acre campus. University officials say it would also thwart its hopes of expanding someday toward the river, and send the wrong message across the border.

"To slice off and fence off the `bi' part of `binational' violates the essence of this university," said university President Juliet V. Garcia, whose office is situated in what was once the thick-walled, tan-brick hospital at Fort Brown, built shortly after the Civil War.

The university has fought a long-running legal battle with the Department of Homeland Security to force the government to find another way to accomplish its goals that began when DHS sued the school for refusing to allow surveyors onto its property.

Back and forth it goes: A federal judge ordered DSH to consider the school’s “unique status as aninstitution of higher learning,” and U.S. Customs and Border Protection replied that, without a fence, it would have to station agents every 50 yards foralmost 3 ½ miles around the campus, with a salary cost of $71 million.

In the end, the court will have to decide.

Even with the bridge, the school will still be accessible from three international bridges that connect Brownsville to Matamoros. That doesn’t seem quite the point, however, to many in the area, whether American or Mexican.

"Of course, we believe in protecting our borders," the university president wrote in an open letter to students in January. "Of course, we believe in strong immigration policy. But we also understand that a fence, no matter how high or how wide, is no substitute for either."

Post-Sept. 11 border security measures have already reduced the number of Mexicans who legally cross the border for English classes at the campus, said John Robey, a political science professor. The fence, he said, just adds insult to inconvenience.

"They think that it's xenophobia run amok," he said.

Some students said they fear the fence will send the wrong message about them.

"You're trying to divide the world," said Omar Diaz, 20, a government major from Victoria, Mexico.

Allison Valles, anaccounting major from Texas and a member of the golf team, said that the fence does more than pose a threat to her favorite activity.

"UTB is trying to portray an image of bringing everybody together, but we would have this wall between us," Valles said.

A fence, without machine gun posts and mines, will not accomplish its goal of keeping out those seeking to cross. However, while it will not succeed in separating us physically, it will go a long way in dividing us.