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Sponsored by Agencies unite to guard border Customs, INS, Border Patrol, inspection service to merge in March Sergio Bustos Gannett News Service Jan. 31, 2003 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Four agencies responsible for protecting the border will be merged into one under a plan to plug gaps in a border-security system whose weaknesses were exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge announced Thursday. The move will merge the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Border Patrol and the Animal and Plant Health Inspections Service into the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and under the same boss. The change is effective March 1. It does not require congressional approval. "Instead of four faces at the border, America will have one," Ridge said during a speech in Miami. "The focus here is to help legitimate goods and people enter our country swiftly and keep dangerous people and their weapons out." The restructuring is expected to bring more federal dollars and more federal attention to states like Arizona to control the flow of people and products into the United States across the U.S.-Mexican border. Each year, millions of dollars in U.S.-Mexican trade and millions of illegal Mexican immigrants move through Arizona. Functions defined This change will create two bureaus: the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, which will deal with people before they enter the country, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will track down potential violators once they have entered the country. All 19 terrorists involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were born abroad, and several were in the country illegally after having overstayed their visas. "The sheer depth and breadth of this nation, the magnitude of what occurs here from sea to shining sea, means simply that one slip, one gap, one vengeful person can threaten the lives of our citizens at any time, in any number of ways," Ridge said. "We will organize to mobilize. It will lead to outcomes that Related stories • Agencies question growing acceptance of Mexican ID cards • March 1 will mark the end of problem- splattered INS better protect our country." But the president of the union that represents Border Patrol agents nationwide said Ridge's restructuring plan will do little to improve security, and he suggested it could eventually mean the end of the U.S. Border Patrol as a federal agency. "Not a single person from Border Patrol was consulted when they dreamed this thing up and launched it," said T.J. Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council. Scathing GAO report Ridge's announcement came the same day Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized the INS and Customs Service for lax enforcement at the nation's borders, airports and seaports. At a Capitol Hill hearing, Grassley released a scathing report by federal investigators from the General Accounting Office who in recent months tested INS and Customs inspectors at selected border checkpoints. The investigators reported having little trouble entering the country with fraudulent identification or carrying undeclared cash. "What these investigators found is shocking," Grassley said. "Bouncers at college bars could spot the kind of fake IDs that were used by investigators." The GAO is an independent arm of Congress. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said he, too, was frustrated with the failure of the INS and Customs. "Our borders are still not secure against infiltration," said Kyl, a key sponsor of legislation signed into law last year to beef up border security. "Federal agencies have been working to increase security at entry points for more than a year but regrettably appear to be far behind in complying with new laws designed to keep terrorists out." Workers affected The restructuring plans at the Homeland Security Department will affect tens of thousands of federal employees, including 10,200 agents stationed on the Southwestern and Northern borders. Mario Villareal, a Border Patrol spokesman, said the agency welcomes the changes. "As an agency, we are excited that the ultimate goal is to protect our homeland," he said. But Bonner, of the Border Patrol union, said, "It sounds like the federal government is expecting one person to know how to deal with everybody and everything trying to cross the border. "How do they expect one person to understand all the fine points of immigration law, be an expert in detecting contaminated fruits and vegetables and know all the rules and regulations related to thousands of imported products? "It's unrealistic. It's just not going to work." Suzanne Luber, regional spokeswoman for the federal Transportation Security Administration, which operates security screening of people and baggage at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said it is too early to know what specific changes the reorganization might mean for the facility, which handles 36 million passengers a year. "We look forward to working with our new sister agencies as we transition to the Department of Homeland Security on March 1," Luber said. Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said he's "cautiously optimistic" about the restructuring plan. "We are going to fight like crazy that immigration enforcement becomes a priority and not the flow of commercial trucks across the border," he said. Republic reporter Judy Nichols and Tucson Citizen reporter Luke Turf contributed to this article. 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