TIGHTENING BOTH BORDERS

More Border Patrol, Customs Agents Are Needed

America's northern border with Canada, for years eclipsed by endemic drug
smuggling and illegal immigration on the Mexican border, is suddenly in the
spotlight. It's about time.

Attorney General John Ashcroft this week announced stepped-up security
along the border with Canada, in the form of military helicopters and
several hundred National Guard troops.

The inequity in border security was brought sharply into focus by the
events of Sept. 11. While approximately 9,000 U.S. agents guard the
2,000-mile-long Mexican border, the 4,000-mile border with Canada is
entrusted to a paltry 500 agents. That's hardly a deterrent to a determined
smuggler -- or terrorist.

There have been terrorism-related scares along the northern border, enough
to raise genuine concern about security.

No doubt naysayers will decry what they see as the militarization of the
border. That's not a credible argument, given the national- security situation.

But National Guard and military aircraft aren't any kind of permanent
answer. There has long been a problem on both borders -- a worrisome dearth
of trained Border Patrol and Customs agents.

The National Guard and full-time military aren't trained in the intricacies
of patrol and interdiction along the border, and understanding border
intelligence gleaned from sources, tracking, observation, search and other
skills that make them uniquely qualified to handle border problems.

It is imperative that the president and Congress cut loose with enough
money to bolster the ranks of border law-enforcement agencies with
personnel trained specifically to perform the complicated task of keeping
our borders secure.

That is the ultimate solution, not plugging the holes with National Guard
troops.