A BATTLE OF WITS TO KEEP SECURE U.S. BORDERS

DALLAS -- After the horror of Sept. 11, one would think that U.S. law
enforcement agencies and policy-makers would now be stretching their
imaginations to envision things that have never happened and prevent
them from happening in the first place.

And with the disconcerting news that nine of the Sept. 11 hijackers
on the day of the attacks were scrutinized at U.S. airports but sent
on their way, there should be less reliance on old blueprints in a
new world of unexpected perils.

Apparently not. Note the recently unveiled Bush administration plan
to deploy about 700 National Guard troops to help the Immigration and
Naturalization Service protect the U.S. borders with Canada and
Mexico.

Even though the deployment is meant to last only six months, the
administration has offered reassurances that the gesture will not
"militarize" U.S. borders. That, said U.S. Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge last week, is the "last thing" the administration wants to
do.

Of course, that is exactly what the administration is doing.
Attempting to turn soldiers into de facto Border Patrol agents,
without the training that goes with the badge, was a bad idea before
Sept. 11, and it is a bad idea now.

But more than that, it may also be futile. Those intent on entering
the United States are not likely to let a little thing like an army
stand in their way.

Just one day before Ridge was discussing putting troops on the
border, U.S. drug agents near San Diego were making a discovery that
changes the equation of border security: a 1,200-foot, lighted,
ventilated and fully fortified tunnel that runs from a house in
Mexico's Baja California to a pig farm on the U.S. side of the border.

Although the tunnel appears to have been built by drug lords and used
primarily to smuggle tons of illegal drugs into the United States, it
was also, authorities acknowledge, available for rent by those who
smuggle other cargo.

For a fee, the drug lords let immigrant smugglers move people from
Mexico swiftly into the United States.

Now for the frightening part: Authorities say there is a good chance
this primitive subway system was operational even after Sept. 11.

Want another scare? This is not the first tunnel they have found. And
there are likely others sprinkled all along the U.S.-Mexico border.

A San Diego-based spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service called the
tunnel evidence of the initiative and ingenuity of those who trade in
the smuggling of narcotics. When one route is closed to them, the
spokesman said, they find a new one.

Ditto for those who smuggle immigrants, or those who intend to do us
harm from within.

Of course, this doesn't mean Americans should simply throw up their
hands and surrender efforts to hold the line against the encroachment
of illicit drugs and illegal immigrants any more than they should
become so discouraged at the elusiveness of Osama bin Laden and the
resilience of al-Qaida that they abandon the war on terrorism.

What it does mean is that when facing off with such enemies, getting
tough is not enough. Americans have to get smart. This isn't just a
battle of wills, but a battle of wits.

What good does it do to put border guards shoulder-to-shoulder in the
desert if smugglers will simply burrow 20 feet underneath?

Getting smart means cracking down on the demand side by stepping up
Immigration and Naturalization Service efforts to pursue and punish
Americans who knowingly hire illegal immigrant laborers. It means
devising new ways to make the cost of immigrant smuggling prohibitive
for smugglers. And it means turning up the pressure on Mexico to hold
up its end in helping patrol the border from the other side.

Most of all, it means never forgetting that as determined as we may
be to keep people out, they are, in all likelihood, even more
desperate to get in.