Bush programs place spotlight on enforcement

Crackdowns will be tough, since many people here illegally help the economy.
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- After decades of government failure to stem the tide of illegal immigration, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans are putting forward ambitious enforcement programs they say will finally lead to effective control over the nation's borders.
To achieve that long-sought goal, they are counting on adding hundreds of new Border Patrol and other immigration agents who would be aided by new technology such as infrared cameras, sensors that distinguish between humans and animals, and a new surveillance drone that can tell whether a furtive figure has a gun or just a pack of cigarettes.
Also proposed: accelerated processing of detainees, expanded holding facilities and some new carrots and sticks to persuade employers not to hire illegal immigrants.
Similar grand designs were unveiled in 1986, 1994 and 1996. All ended in failure. So why would the new initiatives fare any better?
Some supporters argue that new resources would give the enforcement effort critical mass: enough resources to end the pattern of cracking down in one place, only to see the flow of illegal immigrants move elsewhere.
And some Republicans are making enforcement a precondition for considering other facets of reform, including the Bush administration's proposed guest-worker program to give more immigrants some kind of legal status. Faced with congressional intransigence, the administration has decided to put enforcement first, even though top officials say it cannot succeed without a guest-worker system.
Wider views needed
The likelihood of this drive succeeding is already viewed with skepticism, especially among officials in border communities. Some welcome the promises of new aid, but say they don't see how this effort is going to fare better than its predecessors.
"Everything is about the border, about controlling the border, but that will never happen. It's a myopic view," Ray Borane, mayor of Douglas, Ariz., said of Washington's immigration reform efforts. "The border is only ... one piece of the puzzle. Washington also has to focus on where [immigrants] are going and what they're doing when they get there."
What the vast majority are doing is feeding the U.S. economy's seeming insatiable appetite for immigrant workers. They are so vital to the economy that sending them home in a giant law enforcement crackdown is unthinkable, as well as impossible, government officials and outside experts say.
Nonetheless, the administration and Congress are pressing ahead on enforcement.
Near the top of many of the proposals is investment in infrastructure designed to make it harder for immigrants to bypass border checkpoints.
In the House, a newly passed immigration bill requires fencing, including lights and cameras, at certain points along the border. Already, extensive wall and fence systems have been erected in parts of California and Texas.
Band-aid approach
Chris Bauder, president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 1613, which represents San Diego agents, says his city's experience shows walls don't work. The fence in San Diego "just pushed that traffic elsewhere, and that's what a 2,000-mile fence will do: push it to ports of entry, to the coast, to the Canadian border, where we don't have anything."
"They're treating the symptoms, not the root cause," he said -- the U.S. jobs magnet.
The House bill mandates other infrastructure such as checkpoints and all-weather roads, and the administration's plans include vehicle barriers and stadium lighting, plus expanded detention facilities so that non-Mexicans can be held and sent home rather than simply released.