Posted on 03/19/2002 10:04:03 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's advisers are pushing a plan to consolidate several border security functions into a new agency that would be overseen by the Justice Department, officials said Tuesday.
However, the plan to merge the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which includes the Border Patrol, is likely to face resistance from the affected bureaucracies, as well as skepticism from some lawmakers.
Some members of Congress said that the administration proposal does not go far enough to ensure that border control activities are better coordinated and able to ward off terrorist attacks.
They have advocated creating a stand-alone department of homeland security that would have authority over a wide range of duties, including agriculture inspectors and emergency preparedness.
Bush received a consensus recommendation from his homeland security team Tuesday morning that outlined a merger plan that would take customs from the Treasury Department and move it to Justice, where the INS is now located. The domestic security group includes major Cabinet secretaries, including Justice, Treasury, Agriculture, State and Defense.
While Bush has not yet signed off on the plan, administration officials indicated that he looked favorably on the merger proposal, which would be phased in over three years.
"There is a school of thought that you can have better controls and more effective ways of welcoming people to this country, while keeping people out who would do us harm as a result of consolidation," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
Bush will talk about border security Thursday in El Paso, and the issue is expected to be on his agenda when he meets with Latin American leaders at a U.N. conference on Economic Development later this week in Monterrey, Mexico.
White House advisers said that while Bush will not officially unveil the plan during his trip to Mexico, Peru and El Salvador, he wants to arrive in Mexico with Senate approval of a measure that would allow some illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while applying for a permanent visa.
The legislation, already approved by the House, would permit immigrants to seek a visa granting them permanent residency if they pay a $1,000 fee and have a close relative to sponsor them.
Bush urged the Senate to act on the measure so that he could reassure Mexican President Vicente Fox that he was living up to his promises to ease some immigration restrictions.
"I want to show our friends, the Mexicans, that we are compassionate about people who live here on a legal basis, that we don't disrupt the families for people who are here legally," Bush said during a meeting with his Cabinet.
While Bush did not publicly address the issue of merging border functions, the administration has already begun privately briefing some Republican lawmakers on the plan that Congress would have to approve.
Administration officials made it clear that the new entity would not be headed up by Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, even though he has advocated the move.
The administration has been adamant about not giving Ridge, a presidential adviser, the budgetary responsibilities that would force him to be accountable to Congress.
Bush has refused to allow Ridge to testify before congressional committees seeking more information about the administration's proposed $38 billion budget for homeland defense for next year.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lawmakers have been agitating for more reforms for the troubled INS and looking for better ways to coordinate law enforcement on the border.
The administration was recently embarrassed when it was disclosed that the INS delivered student visas for two of the Sept. 11 hijackers six months after the tragic attacks.
However, lawmakers of both parties have different ideas about how to improve the federal government's activities on the border.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has proposed a plan that would create a department of homeland security that would consolidate a broad range of functions, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard.
The proposed agency would be headed by a Cabinet-level official who would have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Lieberman's spokeswoman, Leslie Phillips, said her boss viewed the administration's plan as a "half step."
"Senator Lieberman feels you need to bring these agencies that are tripping all over each other together in a unified department," said Phillips.
Phillips said the president's refusal to let Ridge testify before lawmakers only strengthened Lieberman's belief that the agency must be headed by someone accountable to Congress.
On Tuesday, Lieberman, the chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Ridge requesting detailed information about the proposed homeland defense budget and programs, such as the new color-coded emergency alert system.
Rep. William "Mac" Thornberry, R-Clarendon, who has proposed similar legislation to Lieberman in the House, said that he believed that a new agency over border activities should not be placed under Justice or any other existing department.
"I think it would be better to have a fresh start," said the Texas congressman.
Citing resistance to past proposals to merge customs and the INS, Thornberry said Bush will have to aggressively lobby Congress to ensure that it becomes a reality.
"The president is going to have to stand up for it and say this is important, this is going to make the country safer," he said.
In the 1970s, proposals to merge law enforcement functions died in part because of strong resistance from the bureaucracies, according to Ben Ferro, a former INS official and immigrations consultant.
Ferro said that a merger of border duties is not likely to cure the ills of the INS, which include severe backlogs and outdated computers.
He said that consolidation proposal was a standard government response of "when everything else fails, reorganize."
But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said there was a need to consolidate border functions for more efficiency.
"The disconnect between border control and customs often causes longer delays at the borders," she said. The senator said she plans on taking the lead on legislation that would both protect the U.S. border with Mexico and maintain commerce between the two nations.
I have often wondered why the administration seems so upset about this inconsequential event which amounts only to slow mail delivery. But it seems that that they are using this event to do some consolidation.
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