http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1119bonner.html

Border-watch agencies to be rudderless as of next week
Outgoing leader optimistic about new safeguards

Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Nov. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Both federal agencies charged with securing the nation's borders will have vacancies at the top by next week, even while the country grapples with an increasing stream of migrants coming in illegally.

Robert Bonner, outgoing commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in his last public appearance Friday that new technology, tighter security and reform of immigration laws will give the government better control over the U.S.-Mexican border, where most illegal crossings occur.

The Customs and Border Protection agency oversees the Border Patrol and customs and immigration inspectors. advertisement

"Mark my words, it can be done," Bonner told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We can control the borders."

The first head of CBP, Bonner is set to leave the government the day before Thanksgiving to return to private legal practice.

Meanwhile, the Senate still hasn't confirmed Julie Myers, Bush's choice to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP's investigative counterpart.

That could leave both agencies in bureaucratic limbo, lawmakers said.

"The longer you have an acting person there, the more things drift," said Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. "You want to get the right person, but I think it's important to get someone as quickly as possible."

But advocates for both immigrants and Border Patrol agents said the border can't be secured under current policies, no matter what Bonner says or who follows him. That's largely because U.S. jobs remain a strong lure for people south of the border.

"Unless they come up with something to prevent the job magnet, then all the money they throw at the border is just more money down the drain, because it's not solving the problem," said Rich Pierce executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing about 10,000 Border Patrol agents.

At the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, an advocacy group based in Tucson that seeks better treatment for immigrants, activist Kat Rodriguez called for new policies that wouldn't leave migrants risking their lives to come to the country illegally.

"They know and we know and everybody knows the Border Patrol has an impossible task," Rodriguez said. "They will not be able to seal the border."

Bonner acknowledged that the border is too porous now. But he said new administration initiatives, coupled with legislation to allow legal migration for immigrants driven to find work, would help. Officials plan to add more Border Patrol agents, build new technology into the border and speed removal of people caught illegally entering the country.

When the Department of Homeland Security was formed, Bonner ran the Customs Service, most of which joined with some of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service to form CBP. At the time the department was created, Bonner also spoke out in favor of setting up one agency rather than two to handle the duties assigned to ICE and CBP.

Now, new leadership at both CBP and ICE could help encourage better communication between the two agencies, Kolbe said.