CHERTOFF'S BORDER AMBITIONS

He's Counting on a Fence, More Agents and His Stubborn Streak to Halt
Illegal Immigration and Quiet His Critics.

TUCSON -- Michael Chertoff was in the driver's seat of a white
Chevrolet Tahoe, under the glare of high-powered lights ringing
Border Patrol headquarters. It was 10 p.m., 15 hours into the
Homeland Security secretary's workday.

An agent sitting beside him tapped a glowing computer screen. A map expanded.

Drawing on an arsenal of radar, sensors and cameras, it displayed a
spray of red dots -- suspected border crossers.

But Chertoff saw that the "virtual fence" had a major flaw: It wasn't
able to show in real time where agents were on patrol along the border.

The secretary, leaning back wearily in his seat, said pensively,
"We'll work on this."

In the three years since Chertoff took office, his job has been
transformed by a bitter debate over illegal immigration that made
sealing the border a priority. Once dubbed the nation's
"anti-terrorism czar," he is now also its top border agent.

The vehicle-mounted computer is just one piece of Chertoff's efforts
to revolutionize the nation's border with Mexico. Besides the
installation of high-tech surveillance tools meant to create a
virtual fence, he is spearheading the construction of 670 miles of
real fence and a rapid expansion of the Border Patrol.

As he pursues the ambitious agenda, the secretary must convince
skeptical Americans that it will work. Chertoff -- a graduate of
Harvard Law School and a former Supreme Court clerk, federal judge
and federal prosecutor -- retains a lawyer's faith in the power of a
good argument persuasively delivered.

"I always believed that if I could get direct access to 12 people, I
could talk sense into them," he said.

Chertoff thinks he has the grit to get the job done: "I'm really,
really stubborn. That and, honestly, I guess we're very conscious of
the fact that it's very easy to get bogged down."

This month, making use of the powers given to him by Congress,
Chertoff announced that his department would bypass federal laws to
speed construction of 370 miles of fence, angering environmentalists
and border groups.

"To me, the most important thing we're doing at the border is showing
the American people that if we make a judgment that we need to do
something and we promise to do it, we'll do it," Chertoff said.

The visit to the Tucson station was Chertoff's third stop on a recent
48-hour, two-state blitz through border country, a trip that vividly
illustrated the enormous task ahead as he races toward the end of his tenure.

Yuma, Ariz.

Luis Aguilar's family and colleagues waited for Chertoff in the
Border Patrol's sector headquarters. The agent died in January when
an alleged drug dealer fleeing to Mexico in a Hummer struck him.

Aguilar's 5-year-old daughter, knobby-kneed in tights and black
patent-leather shoes, piped up as Chertoff entered. "Why is everyone
clapping?" she asked. "For Daddy?"

The 32-year-old was the first agent to die violently in the line of
duty since 1998. As the Border Patrol has put more agents on the
front line, violence has increased. Agents were assaulted 987 times
in fiscal year 2007 -- with Molotov cocktails, rocks, gunfire, fists
and, as in Aguilar's case, vehicles -- a 31% increase from 2006.

"An unfortunate metric," noted Chertoff, who said it indicated
smugglers were feeling the heat of more enforcement.

Chertoff wants 18,000 border agents by the end of the year, up from
about 15,300, double the number when President Bush took office in
2001. To get those boots on the ground quickly, training has been
compressed from five months to at most 95 days.

Border officials are concerned about their ability to offer enough
field training. Critics say the accelerated training adds to the
danger by leaving agents unprepared.

"It's a recipe for disaster, as well as a guarantee of increased
rights violations for those who cross the border, as well as those
who call the border home," said Jennifer Allen of the Tucson-based
Border Action Network, an immigrant rights group.

In Yuma, Chertoff spoke frankly about the increasing risks of the job
and expressed his "personal respect and gratitude." As he did, some
agents bit their lips. One silently wept.

"If you try to sugarcoat things . . . they won't have any respect for
you," Chertoff said afterward.

San Luis, Ariz.

A convoy swept Chertoff down dusty roads to the San Luis port of
entry to observe one of his more controversial decisions. Adopting a
recommendation from the Sept. 11 commission, Chertoff limited the
type of identification accepted at the border.

In a building that opened to Mexico on one side and the U.S. on the
other, Chertoff watched an agent briskly process people entering the U.S.

His decision had drawn "a huge hue and cry from the border" and
Capitol Hill, he said.

Chertoff is exasperated that lawmakers demand he improve border
controls and then complain that tighter security hampers tourism and trade.

But he relishes a fight, so much so that his staff has a catchphrase
for the lethal way he sometimes wields his rhetorical skills: "The
snake coming out of the basket."

On this trip, Chertoff was unusually blunt about his conflicts with lawmakers.

" 'We'll implore you to be competent, but as soon as you make
changes, we'll attack you,' " he said, recasting their comments.
"That's B.S. That puts our guys in a position where they're slapped
coming and going, no matter what they do, and to me that's not a
valid criticism."

Tucson

Swooping low over emerald fields, a Blackhawk helicopter ferried
Chertoff on a bone-jarring ride to Tucson, where a convoy whisked him
through the darkness to the sector headquarters.

He was there to check on the $20.6-million Project 28, named for the
28 miles where Boeing Co. has built a prototype virtual fence to
detect border intrusions.

Chertoff is heavily invested in the project, aware that most
Americans don't trust the administration to do much about illegal
immigration. Winning respect for his agency is a recurring theme for
Chertoff, who took over a Homeland Security Department that was the
butt of duct-tape jokes in late-night comedy skits.

In Tucson, Chertoff bolted down his second salad of the day, then
huddled with operators in a room packed with monitors that displayed
camera and radar images.

Soon after, the Government Accountability Office, which conducts
investigations for Congress, issued a damaging report about delays
and inefficiencies in Project 28. For critics, it was more evidence
of the administration's failures.

"The reality is that Project 28 was rushed into implementation to
bolster the Bush administration's claim that it was serious about
border control," said professor Wayne Cornelius, director of the
Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego.

Chertoff acknowledged the system wasn't "as good as it could be," but
said the problems would be fixed.

McAllen, Texas

Under a cobalt sky, Chertoff stood near a podium, listening as local
officials praised his willingness to work with them. Palm trees
swayed in a gentle breeze; Border Patrol agents stood in formation.

Chertoff was in Hidalgo County for a little public diplomacy.
Residents and officials had opposed the fence, fearing it would
stifle the legal flow of goods and people.

If part of Chertoff's job is to convince Americans that his high-tech
system and 670 miles of fence will help stop illegal immigration, he
must also convince border communities that the effort will not hurt them.

Chertoff overcame Hidalgo County's objections by endorsing a
homegrown suggestion to combine a Rio Grande levee with a barrier.
"We're always interested in blending community needs and national
security. It's the only antidote to public cynicism," Chertoff told the crowd.

Then he added a caveat: "We always prefer to work cooperatively, but
we do have a commitment to secure the border. What I can't afford to
do is postpone the inevitable and kick this process down the road."

On the plane back to Washington, where he would soon issue the
largest-ever waiver of federal laws to build the border fence,
Chertoff explained why he had delivered the warning: "If people think
you're going to buckle, you're never going to get anything done."