Border Control

To read Frank del Olmo's views on illegal immigration (Commentary, Sept. 29), America should just run up a white flag and allow millions of people from around the world to come here, displacing millions of American workers and heaping additional burdens on our taxpayers. Del Olmo would have us believe that America should not enforce its borders by arguing that America cannot enforce its borders. But if we cannot control who enters the United States, such as illegal aliens, we cannot control what enters, such as illegal drugs.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul is calling for conservatives to embrace the cause of immigration reform, outlining a proposal that would grant some form of legal status to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants after the federal government has certified that the border is secure. Paul's proposal, outlined in a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Tuesday, carefully avoided the term citizenship. Instead, the Kentucky senator said he sought a middle ground that would include a multi-year process of granting visas to undocumented workers that would hinge on the annual verification of the security of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Erik Holm Jensen slips between countries without a thought or a passport. He drives from Denmark into northern Germany as smoothly as an American going from Delaware to New Jersey. There's no hassle at the border, no guards to stop him on his way to the office. If he blinks, he misses the modest sign indicating that he's crossed from one country into another. Such seamless travel is one of the European Union's greatest achievements in its pursuit of a stable, prosperous continent built in the lingering aftermath of World War II. The other is the wad of euros in Jensen's wallet, which the 60-year-old business consultant can use in 17 nations.

Erik Holm Jensen slips between countries without a thought or a passport. He drives from Denmark into northern Germany as smoothly as an American going from Delaware to New Jersey. There's no hassle at the border, no guards to stop him on his way to the office. If he blinks, he misses the modest sign indicating that he's crossed from one country into another. Such seamless travel is one of the European Union's greatest achievements in its pursuit of a stable, prosperous continent built in the lingering aftermath of World War II. The other is the wad of euros in Jensen's wallet, which the 60-year-old business consultant can use in 17 nations.

Re "Consider NAFTA a Border Control Tool," Commentary, Oct. 22: Atty. Gen. Janet Reno's theory sounds good. Many months before she was on the scene I wrote an article saying that NAFTA and an improved Mexican economy were the hope to reduce illegals. I have seen the agreement and NAFTA is a Trojan horse. Reno is now part of the Clinton parade of so-called "experts" who are using fear as the motivational force to gain public support for NAFTA. I have spent more time on the border and on the issue of illegal immigration than Reno.

Israeli spokesmen said Wednesday that negotiators have reached "a meeting of the minds" on key stumbling blocks to an accord on Palestinian self-rule, but the tentative agreement met a cool reception from the Palestinian leadership and both sides said more talks are needed. After nearly three days of exhausting meetings, the heads of the two delegations said they have come to a possible agreement on how much of Jericho the Palestinians will control once Israeli troops begin their withdrawal.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno's $540.5-million plan to tighten border control is already being implemented with, among other measures, the installation of 62 stadium-style lights along a two-mile segment of the San Diego-Tijuana border. The basic elements of the Clinton Administration initiative are not new: putting more Border Patrol agents on la linea; continuing the "blockade" strategy in the El Paso, Tex.

Lithuanian leaders, stunned by the Soviet Union's use of military power to assert its authority here but hoping to open talks soon on their plans to secede from the Soviet Union, on Wednesday backed away from their sharp confrontation with Moscow with two conciliatory moves.

After months of haggling that threatened to paralyze hopes for Palestinian self-rule, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators Wednesday concluded three days of marathon talks and signed a preliminary agreement that overcomes many of the biggest obstacles to Palestinian autonomy.

Enhanced security measures have reduced illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border near San Diego and helped combat border violence and drug traffic, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Saturday. INS Commissioner Gene McNary cited several statistical indicators for the last year that he said "show for the first time significant progress is being made to regain control" of the border along the 66-mile San Diego sector.

The U.S. economic downturn and tightened border controls have begun to alter the rhythms of undocumented migrants who used to move back and forth with regularity, which has crimped the flow of money sent home to Mexico, one of the nation's main sources of foreign income. The developments have produced worry and deep uncertainty in towns such as Tejaro, a farming community of 4,200 where pickup trucks bear license plates from Nevada and Minnesota.

Michael Chertoff was in the driver's seat of a white Chevrolet Tahoe, under the glare of high-powered lights ringing Border Patrol headquarters. It was 10 p.m., 15 hours into the Homeland Security secretary's workday. An agent sitting beside him tapped a glowing computer screen. A map expanded. Drawing on an arsenal of radar, sensors and cameras, it displayed a spray of red dots -- suspected border crossers.

The collapse of Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday altered the region's political and security landscape as suddenly as it changed the fortunes of Palestinians who poured out of the enclave to stock up on goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade.

As they try to work out a joint approach to a Gaza Strip controlled by the militant group Hamas, the United States and Egypt already are parting ways on the key issue of how to control the Palestinian territory's dangerous southwestern border. U.S.

Aerospace and defense giant Boeing Co. has won a multibillion-dollar contract to revamp how the United States guards about 6,000 miles of border in an attempt to curb illegal immigration, congressional sources said Tuesday. Boeing's proposal relied heavily on a network of 1,800 towers -- some of which already exist, but most of which would be erected along the borders with Mexico and Canada. Each tower would be equipped with sensors, including cameras and heat and motion detectors.

In their efforts to extend the Republican Party's dominance beyond President Bush's term in office, White House strategists have sought to woo Latinos -- the population's fastest-growing segment and a group that generally favors looser immigration laws. But Bush's speech on immigration policy Monday night served as a concession that before the GOP can focus on the voters of the future, it must deal with the voters of the present: the conservatives who form the core of Bush's political base.

Compromises are slowly emerging in negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on plans for Palestinian self-government, but a full agreement may be a week or more away, Israeli officials said Monday. Teams from both sides will meet this evening in Paris in a further attempt to resolve the outstanding issues, although well-placed Israeli officials predicted "further progress but not the ultimate breakthrough" during those talks.

Immigration and Naturalization Service agents rounded up 123 suspected illegal aliens in the city of Orange today during an early morning sweep that INS Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell said will be the first of a series of raids in Orange and Los Angeles counties specifically targeting areas where such workers gather to seek jobs.

The Minuteman Project, the self-proclaimed citizen border patrol that has emerged as a vocal opponent of illegal immigration, arrived in the heart of South Los Angeles on Wednesday hoping to recruit blacks to their cause. But instead, they were met by protesters -- most of them African American -- who compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan and urged them to take their campaign elsewhere. The event, billed as the Minuteman Project's launch of a cross-country caravan to Washington, D.C.

Michelle Dallacroce has 4,997 unread e-mails, is late to a meeting and needs to pick up her daughter from elementary school, but here she is, counting day laborers. "Look, they're over there!" she says as she steers her Lexus SUV through her neighborhood. "That one's under the trees! My children have to see this." Her outrage rising, Dallacroce takes a detour, stopping at a retirement home to distribute fliers for her new group, Mothers Against Illegal Aliens.