http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YT ... JjNzBiZDU=

Amnesty straw would break back of overloaded department.

By James Jay Carafano

Far too many cracks in homeland security since September 11 can be traced directly to Congress. Trying to show they are really serious about security, Washington lawmakers have wound up piling more missions and responsibilities on the Department of Homeland Security than the crisis-born agency could accomplish.






DHS Mission Impossible 06/28

Spare Us $4.4. Billion 06/18

Killer Amnesty 06/12

Now We Can Get to Work 06/08

What to Say After JFK 06/04

A REAL Problem 05/31





Carafano: DHS Mission Impossible

Hanson: Our Enemy’s Attrition

Loyola: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Kudlow: Washington’s ‘War Against Winners’

Gitlitz: Cutting Through the Bond Bull

Schwartz: Regulating to Infinity and Beyond

Kern: A Return to Virtue

Nordlinger: Sliming they will go, &c.

Editors: Amnesty Eight

Goldberg: Confessions of a Cheney Fan

Lopez: Not So Sharp

Sowell: Life’s a Show

Gardiner: After Blair

Malkin: Clear the Damn Backlogs First





The immigration-reform bill now under consideration would only make the problem worse. In granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, the Senate proposal would further overwhelm DHS’s capacity to manage immigration services, enforce the law, and ramp up border security.

Giving more missions to DHS now is a recipe for failure. Rather, Congress and the administration should free homeland-security officials to focus on current missions, where their existing authority can build a powerful deterrent to illegal migration.

Remember, DHS has yet to complete many long-standing security initiatives. Here are just five:

Meet passport requirements. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative of 2004 requires U.S. and Canadian citizens to carry a passport or equivalent document when crossing our common border. What followed? A backlog of 500,000 passport applications. DHS and the State Department last week announced the delay of full implementation until January.

Process legal migration. An ombudsman’s report earlier this year found DHS’ Citizenship and Immigration Services swims in a backlog of more than 1.3 million applications for legal immigration. Other reports put the number as high as 4 million.

Implement the Secure Flight Initiative. Designed to screen manifests for domestic flights against the Terrorist Watch List, this system offers the kind of capability that could have stopped some of the September 11 terrorists. The administration intended this priority recommendation of the 9/11 Commission to be fully operative in 2005, but keeps granting extensions to DHS.

Show travelers the exit. The U.S. VISIT system is supposed to screen foreigners as they enter and leave the country, but the government has failed to implement a mandatory exit process. No electronic means exists for verifying a traveler’s identity — think of this! — and confirming he has boarded an outbound flight. (Congress, by the way, mandated this system years before the September 11 attacks.)

Deport fugitive aliens. Many illegal aliens don’t show up for court dates after they’re caught and released pending a deportation hearing. Some 630,000 of these fugitive aliens continue to evade vastly outnumbered Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities.

Given recent assurances, it’s important to recall that gaining “operational controlâ€