PS: I was listening to a radio interview this morning (KSFO, San Francisco) wherein the speaker claimed that border security may have been actually compromised following the enactment of the Homeland Security Act, because the existing INS was merged with the (much larger bureaucracy) Customs Agency, thus potentially undermining the INS's main mission -- Customs being interested in other issues besides terrorit infiltration into the USA.
Great news, huh? IMO, it's going to come down to the venerable Second Amendment to save are asses. My recommendation: Buy lots of guns and ammunition ASAP.
I would disagree with this. The problem was the INS had two missions, one being "let 'em in" and the other being "keep 'em out". They were in conflict and the left hand wasn't talking to the right. By breaking INS into three separate bureaus, only the border enforcement part merged with customs to create Customs and Border Protection. The immigration and naturalization piece went to a separate bureau, BCIS, and the investigation piece went to ICE.
Therefore, our structure now allows us to be more focused on our enforcement mission, not less.
The INS was compromised long ago by Bill Clinton and the woman he appointed to head the organization, Doris Meisner. She clearly stated it was her belief that the border should be open. Under her so called leadership, we saw the dissolution of our borders begin on a massive scale, with massive illegal immigration as a result.