Pubdate: Thu, 07 Mar 2002
Source: Elizabethton Star (TN)
Copyright: 2002 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.starhq.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1478
Author: Ruben Navarrette (Dallas Morning News)

A BATTLE OF WITS TO KEEP SECURE U.S. BORDERS

DALLAS -- After the horror of Sept. 11, one would think that U.S. law 
enforcement agencies and policy-makers would now be stretching their 
imaginations to envision things that have never happened and prevent 
them from happening in the first place.

And with the disconcerting news that nine of the Sept. 11 hijackers 
on the day of the attacks were scrutinized at U.S. airports but sent 
on their way, there should be less reliance on old blueprints in a 
new world of unexpected perils.

Apparently not. Note the recently unveiled Bush administration plan 
to deploy about 700 National Guard troops to help the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service protect the U.S. borders with Canada and 
Mexico.

Even though the deployment is meant to last only six months, the 
administration has offered reassurances that the gesture will not 
"militarize" U.S. borders. That, said U.S. Homeland Security Director 
Tom Ridge last week, is the "last thing" the administration wants to 
do.

Of course, that is exactly what the administration is doing. 
Attempting to turn soldiers into de facto Border Patrol agents, 
without the training that goes with the badge, was a bad idea before 
Sept. 11, and it is a bad idea now.

But more than that, it may also be futile. Those intent on entering 
the United States are not likely to let a little thing like an army 
stand in their way.

Just one day before Ridge was discussing putting troops on the 
border, U.S. drug agents near San Diego were making a discovery that 
changes the equation of border security: a 1,200-foot, lighted, 
ventilated and fully fortified tunnel that runs from a house in 
Mexico's Baja California to a pig farm on the U.S. side of the border.

Although the tunnel appears to have been built by drug lords and used 
primarily to smuggle tons of illegal drugs into the United States, it 
was also, authorities acknowledge, available for rent by those who 
smuggle other cargo.

For a fee, the drug lords let immigrant smugglers move people from 
Mexico swiftly into the United States.

Now for the frightening part: Authorities say there is a good chance 
this primitive subway system was operational even after Sept. 11.

Want another scare? This is not the first tunnel they have found. And 
there are likely others sprinkled all along the U.S.-Mexico border.

A San Diego-based spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service called the 
tunnel evidence of the initiative and ingenuity of those who trade in 
the smuggling of narcotics. When one route is closed to them, the 
spokesman said, they find a new one.

Ditto for those who smuggle immigrants, or those who intend to do us 
harm from within.

Of course, this doesn't mean Americans should simply throw up their 
hands and surrender efforts to hold the line against the encroachment 
of illicit drugs and illegal immigrants any more than they should 
become so discouraged at the elusiveness of Osama bin Laden and the 
resilience of al-Qaida that they abandon the war on terrorism.

What it does mean is that when facing off with such enemies, getting 
tough is not enough. Americans have to get smart. This isn't just a 
battle of wills, but a battle of wits.

What good does it do to put border guards shoulder-to-shoulder in the 
desert if smugglers will simply burrow 20 feet underneath?

Getting smart means cracking down on the demand side by stepping up 
Immigration and Naturalization Service efforts to pursue and punish 
Americans who knowingly hire illegal immigrant laborers. It means 
devising new ways to make the cost of immigrant smuggling prohibitive 
for smugglers. And it means turning up the pressure on Mexico to hold 
up its end in helping patrol the border from the other side.

Most of all, it means never forgetting that as determined as we may 
be to keep people out, they are, in all likelihood, even more 
desperate to get in.
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MAP posted-by: Josh