Immigration Linked to Security Revamp

WASHINGTON (By Nicole Gaouette, LATimes) July 14, 2005 - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, portraying immigration reform as a vital weapon against terrorism, Wednesday pledged to tighten border security but also called on Congress to approve a guest-worker program that would make it easier for foreign workers to enter the United States legally.

Chertoff's pitch for immigration reform was part of a long-awaited package of proposals for streamlining and tightening the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, which was rushed into being two years ago as part the federal government's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"We must gain full control of our borders to prevent illegal immigration and security breaches," Chertoff said. But, he added, "control of the border will also require reducing the demand for illegal border migration" by channeling needed workers through a new legal system. Implicit in the guest-worker program would be an increase in the number of legal immigrants.

Chertoff vowed to carry his campaign for a guest-worker program as well as other reforms to Capitol Hill in the weeks ahead.

By linking the controversial subject of immigration policy to the popular goal of thwarting terrorists, Chertoff sought to give new impetus to President Bush's stalled proposal for an expanded guest-worker program as well as enhanced border security.

And, by linking the guest-worker plan to calls for tougher border controls, he also sought to mollify those conservative Republicans in Congress who have opposed such programs on grounds that enforcement must come first.

With 183,000 workers pulled together from 22 separate federal agencies, Chertoff's department has been widely regarded as a bulky bureaucracy that needed top-to-bottom reorganization.

Most of the reorganizing can be accomplished administratively, Chertoff said, but some will require congressional action.

In some areas, Chertoff wants to create positions, including an assistant secretary for cyber and telecommunications security and another assistant secretary to head a new policy division. Shortly after Chertoff's speech, the White House nominated Stewart Baker, a former general counsel for the National Security Agency, to be assistant secretary for policy.

Chertoff also announced the creation of a chief intelligence officer, a position he said would help fuse more than 10 offices within DHS that produce intelligence.

Chertoff said the department would look to use technology to detect explosives and biological, chemical or radioactive material on rail, subway and bus systems. Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson said detection tools probably would be installed in large cities with subway systems subject to the greatest risk of attack. Those cities would probably include New York and Washington.

These types of technologies could cost the government an estimated $6 billion to buy, install and maintain, said William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.