What it will take to terror-proof border

An impending sharp increase in Border Patrol numbers is a first step in what could become a long effort to secure US land boundaries in today's terrorist age.

Nearly doubling the border force, as provided for in the just-passed intelligence bill, should at least make life a little easier for hard-pressed agents, who chase thousands of illegals every day. The addition of 4,000 immigration and customs agents will also help.

But if Washington wants to diminish the possibility of terrorist land incursion, it needs to address the larger problem of migrant flows, say experts. The two issues are inextricable - and solving the migrant problem may require a more comprehensive effort than hammering extra pickets on the national fence.

"Finding a terrorist at the border is like finding a needle in a haystack, and I don't know how to find them other than to make the haystack smaller," says Nestor Rodriguez, an immigration expert at the University of Houston.

Immigration was a central issue in the travails of intelligence reform legislation, which finally cleared Congress on Wednesday. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R) of Wisconsin wanted the bill to include a provision forbidding states from issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, among other things. Rep. Sensenbrenner's objection - along with the concerns of some powerful lawmakers about effects on the military's chain of command - nearly kept the bill from passing.

In the end, the driver-license section was not included. But the legislation still contained important immigration-related changes. Under terms of the bill, the US is to add 2,000 Border Patrol agents and 800 immigration and customs agents every year for the next five years.

The intelligence bill orders tests of advanced sensors, videos, and unmanned aircraft surveillance along the nation's northern border, and mandates creation of a plan to survey the more-porous southwestern border with unmanned aerial vehicles. It also strengthens visa application requirements, and requires that states eventually use a common electronic format for the strip that stores data on driver licenses.

So far, reports of possible terrorist incursions across US land borders are sketchy. In June, a Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader was spotted in Honduras, and then Mexico. Intelligence officials believe he was looking for ways to smuggle Al Qaeda members into the US.

In July, a South African woman was arrested in McAllen, Texas, with $7,300 in different currencies, muddy pants, and a passport with three pages ripped out, and she had no visa to enter the US. She later pleaded guilty to the charges. This fall, US security officials were investigating an intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists with ties to Islamic militants had illegally entered the US. It is uncertain if the report was true.

Still, the only way to better the protect the US against terrorists simply walking into the US is to decrease illegal immigration overall, say experts.

"No amount of added security at the border is going to solve the problem until Mexican migration is redefined and dealt with primarily as a labor-market regulation issue rather than exclusively as a border-security issue," says Peter Andreas, a political scientist at Brown University and the author of "Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide."

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