Homeland Security officials say it will cost more than $2 million to fill a tunnel that was dug by drug dealers under the U.S.-Mexican border between San Diego and Tijuana. As a stopgap they are plugging it with $15,000 worth of concrete at the point it crosses the border.

I recently re-read The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill, the book on which the movie of the same name was based. I read the book as a kid and saw it on sale at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago for about $4. If you read it you’ll realize how, with the proper motivation, people can achieve what seems impossible with almost nothing.

Three tunnels were underway in their prison camp. They named them Tom, Dick and Harry. Trolleys and rails were designed to haul sand, air pumps were devised to ventilate the ever-lengthening tunnels, and ingenious methods were concocted to shore up the tunnels and get rid of the sand that resulted from the excavations. Eventually they filled in one tunnel with the sand they were digging from another. And they did all this without any funding.

If any of these guys is still alive, I suggest that Homeland Security consult with them about how to fill in a tunnel for a lot less than $2 million.