MORE AGENTS

President Clinton Should Approve Border Patrol Funding

The Border Patrol has a history of being terribly understaffed to do
the job it is supposed to do -- stopping the torrent of narcotics and
illegal aliens that flow virtually unimpeded into the United States
from south of the border.

In recent years Washington politicians have talked a good game about
building up the Border Patrol -- hiring more agents, providing the
necessary equipment and increasing the pay. But, for the most part, it
has just been so many words spoken on campaign trails in the
Southwestern border states.

Even the 1996 bill that Congress passed and President Clinton signed
into law directing the Immigration and Naturalization Service to hire
1,000 additional Border Patrol agents per year over the next five
years seems to have been mostly shortchanged or totally forgotten.

Last year INS told Congress it could only hire 600 agents at most. INS
spent the leftover money on office equipment and uniforms.

This year President Clinton didn't even include a request in his
budget for funds to hire 1,000 additional agents.

But Congress, at the behest of Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and
other senators and representatives from border states, has gone ahead
and approved funds to hire 1,000 new agents in this year's Commerce,
Justice and State Appropriations bill.

The bill prohibits leftover funds from being spent on office supplies.
Leftover funds can be used for recruiting bonuses to hire new agents
or used to give raises to career Border Patrol officers to enhance
retention.

President Clinton should do what he said he would do and approve these
funds so that more agents can be hired to patrol the border.

Seeing that the nation's borders are secure should be a priority of
the president, whoever that is, and not some afterthought or campaign
gimmick.