http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0207budget-border0207.html

Border plan swells budget Bush wants billions more to secure crossing

Mike Madden Republic Washington Bureau Feb. 7, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants billions of dollars for 1,500 more Border Patrol agents, 6,700 new beds in immigration detention facilities, increased prosecution of employers of undocumented workers and other border security measures.

The proposal was part of a $2.77 trillion budget for the fiscal year starting in October that the White House released Monday. It would increase spending on defense and homeland security while slowing Medicare growth and cutting other services and programs.

For Arizona, where Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican lawmakers are sparring over how to slow illegal immigration through changes to state law, President Bush's plan could mean more federal help is on the way after years of frustration over the resources devoted to policing the state's 389-mile border with Mexico.

In Bush's budget proposal, federal spending would increase by at least $61 billion, or 2.25 percent, over this year. The administration also plans to seek $120 billion to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the federal deficit to $423 billion if the budget wins congressional approval.

Still, Bush asked for significantly more money for border security and immigration enforcement agencies, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The president said he wants to gain control of the U.S.-Mexican border and cut down on illegal immigration and the hiring of undocumented workers.

The proposal would add muscle, in the form of money, to recent policy statements by Bush and other officials.

But lawmakers and others said money alone won't stop illegal immigration. Even Bush's allies said the funds in the proposed budget wasn't a solution.

"He's having to balance interests here," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. "Given the desire to cut the deficit in half before the end of his term, he's applying a lot of money toward this border problem. But is it enough? No."

In the formal budget Bush sent to Congress, he repeated his call for some kind of temporary-worker program to allow short-term visas for some foreign workers, saying the enforcement measures the budget would fund must be part of a comprehensive reform of immigration laws.

"The administration's plan is to catch all migrants attempting to enter the country illegally, decrease crime rates along the border, allow employers to hire legal foreign workers when no American is willing to take the job, and restore public confidence in the federal government's ability to enforce immigration laws," the document says.

Spending on the two main border and immigration agencies, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would go up by $1.3 billion, an increase of nearly 14 percent.

That includes $317 million to hire, train and equip 1,500 new Border Patrol agents, as well as $41 million for about 200 new ICE agents to investigate employers who break laws against hiring undocumented workers.

The budget would devote almost $300 million to construction of 6,700 new detention beds, allowing officials to process 100,000 more immigrants caught entering the country illegally, and $94 million to return them to their home countries quickly.

An additional $135 million would expand the databases used by local law enforcement, social service agencies and employers to check whether immigrants are authorized to be in the United States. That could help enforce state laws like Proposition 200 intended to prevent undocumented immigrants from getting state benefits or voting.

Bush wants to spend $100 million on new sensors, cameras and surveillance equipment deployed on the border. In western Arizona, an additional $51 million would go to build 39 miles of vehicle barriers designed to stop people from driving over the border illegally. Two ports of entry, in Nogales and San Luis, would get a total of $51 million for upgrades and new construction.

Arizona is the most popular gateway for illegal immigration along the Southwestern border. More than half of the 1.1 million arrests reported last year took place in the state.

"On the surface, it (Bush's proposal) sounds good, but that's the problem," said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, a spokeswoman for Napolitano, adding that figuring out the budget's impact on the state would take more examination. "It's just too soon to be able to say definitively whether this is maybe all good for Arizona."

Napolitano has proposed her own $100 million plan to fight illegal immigration, which would use a radar-based technology and have National Guard troops playing a backup role to border agents. She also wants the Department of Defense to pay for any additional Guard troops at the border before they are stationed there.

Napolitano envisions the Guard doing things at the border like communications, operating radar-based technology to track border-crossers and assisting in commerce checkpoints.

Proposals in the state Legislature would put even more state resources into border security, as well as enlisting local police to help track down undocumented immigrants living in Arizona.

State Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, is a longtime opponent of illegal immigration who has called for troops at the border and sponsored bills to use local police to track and detain undocumented immigrants.

Reacting to Bush's proposal Monday, he said it does not go far enough.

"I'm just tired of the malfeasance on the part of the federal government," Pearce said, referring to his belief that the government has not done enough to protect the border.

Activists and analysts said Bush's proposal could slow, but would not stop, illegal immigration.

"Since 1993, we've tripled the number of agents and we've multiplied the amount of technology, and we've not reduced the number of people who are coming by one person," said the Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Humane Borders, a Tucson group that provides water stations in the desert.

Hoover said the extra money to change the situation is "like betting on a tape-delayed football game thinking the score's going to be different."

Border security and immigration enforcement agencies may need to improve their performance, as well.

"The increases in funding are more than welcomed," said Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland.

"But it all depends on the ability of the department to effectively implement the programs."

None of the increases will become law unless Congress approves them.

Reach the reporter at mmadden@gns.gannett.com.