Posted on 03/19/2002 5:16:34 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
President Bush is leaning toward forming one U.S. border agency "to focus on the holes in our border process," administration sources told United Press International Tuesday. One source said "he is nowhere close to making a decision" on whether Homeland Director Tom Ridge would head the new agency.
At a meeting Tuesday of the Homeland Security Council, President Bush was offered three options, according to these sources. One was to form a border agency that would combine the U.S. Treasury's Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, forming one of the largest enforcement agencies in government and dwarfing others such as the FBI.
Another proposal, these sources said, would leave the agencies separate, but reorganize the INS into two bureaus: one to focus on enforcement and the other on servicing immigrants.
"A third option would be to leave as they are, which is not a viable option," one source said. Even after increased alertness after Sept. 11, the United States can screen only a tiny portion of freight and travelers that cross the country's 7,500 miles of land border and dozens of ports of entry each day. "The president is convinced that we can't have homeland security without border security," said another source.
From the time he was appointed last fall, Ridge, the former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, has pushed for a single agency. But it was opposed by the vested interests in the INS, Justice and the Treasury Department who saw it eviscerating the power of their agencies. If Bush chooses Ridge's plan to combine the agency it will be a major boon to the prestige of the Homeland Security director.
From the beginning many powerful Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have believed that a single border agency should be formed. They also believed that Ridge should head it and have the power to better shape a policy on homeland security. Throughout the past months, Ridge has found himself often being resisted and sometimes publicly embarrassed by statements about border security counter to his agreements with Canada and other foreign governments.
UPI established that Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of Customs, and INS Commissioner James Ziglar have clashed with Ridge behind closed doors and that the disputes have come out the open.
The new agency would be under the general administration of the Department of Justice and would supplant the troubled INS. This, one source said, was to bring Attorney General John Ashcroft on board with the plan.
Indications for One Agency
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer already seemed to be backing the single agency in his briefing Tuesday:
"There is a school of thought," he told reporters, "that you can have better controlled and more effective ways of welcoming people to this country, welcoming trade to this country, while keeping people out who would do us harm as a result of consolidation."
A White House source told reporters that the decision would not be made until Bush is back from Latin America. The president leaves Thursday for an economic conference in Monterrey, Mexico, a visit with Mexican President Vicente Fox and then stops in Peru and El Salvador.
Ziglar told reporters at National Press Club luncheon Tuesday that if Bush wanted to combine the agencies he would support it. "I support George Bush," he said. But one administration source thought it doubtful that Ziglar would be chosen to head the new agency.
Bungling INS
INS has been for years one of the most troubled departments in government. It has about 35,000 employees, including 9,000 members of the Border Patrol, which is supposed to guard U.S. borders, but the agency has never been able to handle the flood of aliens into the United States.
There are an estimated 9 million illegal aliens in the United States. About half came surreptitiously across the Mexican border, and about half are aliens who have overstayed their visas.
The agency's record system is so confused and inadequate that often it has allowed dangerous persons to slip through U.S. border and entry points. Only last week, it was disclosed that an INS contractor mailed approvals for visa requests of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers to the flight school they were attending in Florida.
Bush was embarrassed and angered by the flub and said his displeasure was transmitted to the attorney general and to Ziglar. Ziglar got his job through Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., then majority leader of the Senate, who has lost influence since the Democrats took of the chamber.
U.S. borders have patchwork of federal agencies guarding them, which over recent years often did not work together. In addition to the Customs Service, Border Patrol agents and INS immigration officers, the Agriculture Department has a border service to screen farm products, the U.S. Coast Guard watches ports and harbors and searches vessels at sea, and the Department of Transportation's security agency has responsibilities for screen truck and aircraft transportation for terrorists.
"This is a very tricky move," one official told UPI. "It has implications for the war on drugs as well as on the economy."
Leave the INS intact. Let it handle all matters related to legal immigration and naturalization services. A fellow FReeper had a good idea. Place the INS under the Dept of State, instead of the Dept of Justice. That might work.
All border enforcement efforts, should be consolitated under one separate agency. This agency would be responsible for all border crossings from Mexico and Canada, including all foreigners entering the US aboard ships and planes. Placing it under Homeland Security would be a logical choice, since it's part of our overall national security efforts.
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