United States Borders

The House, seized by election-year enthusiasm for anti-drug legislation, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to require the armed forces to halt illegal drug trafficking into the United States. The measure, authored by Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado), gives President Reagan only 45 days "to substantially halt the unlawful penetration of the United States borders by aircraft and vessels carrying narcotics."

It was the fall of 1991 and I had just been accepted into a top-tier business school in the United States. I arrived in New York from my native Egypt, my 5-foot frame almost completely hidden by two huge suitcases containing, among other things, silverware for the dinner parties my mother assured me I would want to give. I had signed up for a studio apartment facilitated by the university.

President Bush's new nominee for defense secretary, Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.), has in the past supported a plan strongly opposed by the Pentagon that would require the U.S. military to halt drug smuggling over the nation's southern border. Cheney's vote for the proposal, which was approved by the House last May 5 over the opposition of then-Defense Secretary Frank C.

Alarmed by growing hints of Al Qaeda's progress toward obtaining a nuclear or radiological weapon, the Bush administration has deployed hundreds of sophisticated sensors since November to U.S. borders, overseas facilities and choke points around Washington. Officials have placed the Delta Force, the nation's elite commando unit, on a new standby alert to seize control of nuclear materials that the sensors may detect.

The House passed a $270-billion defense bill that includes authorizing the military to help patrol U.S. borders in the war against drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Opponents said the plan--an amendment approved, 288 to 132--could turn the U.S.-Mexican border into an armed corridor. The overall bill, covering military programs and spending for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, was then passed on a 357-60 vote. The Senate is expected to vote on its version next month.

The U.S. Border Patrol has long been regarded as the blue-collar underdog of law enforcement. Agents drive battered vehicles. Radios fail during pursuits. Lack of personnel in San Diego forces agents into tedious tasks such as interviewing lines of prisoners being returned to Tijuana--often the same faces night after night. In an effort to end the frustration and anarchy at the border, the immigration control initiative announced by Atty. Gen.

The military should not become deeply involved in fighting illegal drugs because soldiers are not properly trained to enforce civilian laws, Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci told Congress. "I think it is unwise to get the military into the law enforcement question," Carlucci said at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.

The Customs Service intercepted 87,898 pounds of cocaine at U.S. borders during fiscal 1987, which ended Sept. 30, the Treasury Department reported Tuesday. It noted that the figure represented a record, up from 54,389 pounds of the drug seized in fical 1986.

Farmers plagued by labor shortages should hire more Americans who are unemployed and on welfare, the Reagan Administration's immigration chief recommended Monday. "This time of transition from an illegal agricultural work force to a legal one presents our nation with a unique opportunity to break both the welfare and illegal-alien dependency cycles," said Alan C. Nelson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Reversing momentum that had been building in Washington for a relaxation of U.S. immigration laws, last week's terrorist attacks appear likely to spawn a rash of measures designed to tighten the nation's borders. On Capitol Hill, legislators who until recently talked about new legalization programs are now focused almost entirely on hiring more U.S. Border Patrol agents, improving background checks on visa applicants and possibly overhauling the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Tightened security because of terrorist attacks in the U.S. caused huge traffic jams at the American border as U.S. agents braced for a possible border closure. All the main border crossings were open hours after the attacks, but Customs and other agents were rushed to the 2,100-mile frontier. The normally unarmed U.S. officers at the border were joined by Border Patrol agents toting automatic rifles, and Immigration and Naturalization Service officers in El Paso wore white bulletproof vests.

George W. Bush on Monday proposed splitting the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies, one to guard the nation's borders and the other to welcome new legal immigrants and help them deal with red tape. And in a further bid for support among Latino voters who have rallied behind him in unusually large numbers during his two campaigns for governor of Texas, Bush called for rescinding present policies he called barriers to family reunification.

Pedro Vanegas Lopez, a 33-year-old Honduran refugee fleeing the devastation of Hurricane Mitch, knew his journey to the United States would be a perilous one. He expected to confront thieves along the way, to haggle over bribes with Mexican policemen, to walk for many days and to sleep under the stars. It was what he encountered as he crossed the Mexican-Guatemalan border that caught him completely by surprise.

The House passed a $270-billion defense bill that includes authorizing the military to help patrol U.S. borders in the war against drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Opponents said the plan--an amendment approved, 288 to 132--could turn the U.S.-Mexican border into an armed corridor. The overall bill, covering military programs and spending for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, was then passed on a 357-60 vote. The Senate is expected to vote on its version next month.

Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner on Friday announced the second phase of the Clinton Administration's much-heralded Operation Gatekeeper to thwart illegal immigration and score political points in a state where illegal immigration is a major issue. Amid the roar of traffic at the San Ysidro border crossing, Meissner announced that 45 more agents and 25 more inspectors will be assigned along the border.

President Reagan on Wednesday extended the territorial waters of the United States to 12 miles from 3 miles to conform to the standard set by a U.N. agreement in 1982. The presidential proclamation said the extension will give the United States, for an additional 9 miles offshore, "a sovereignty and jurisdiction that extend to the airspace over the territorial sea, as well as to its bed and subsoil."

As opposing camps in the national immigration debate exchange rhetorical grenades, a federal commission is quietly fashioning a set of recommendations that could provide the basis for bipartisan agreement on some of the issue's most contentious elements. The report being compiled by the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform is expected to have a significant impact on how immigration policy is formed during the next two years, Administration sources said. The report is due in September.

The U.S. Border Patrol has long been regarded as the blue-collar underdog of law enforcement. Agents drive battered vehicles. Radios fail during pursuits. Lack of personnel in San Diego forces agents into tedious tasks such as interviewing lines of prisoners being returned to Tijuana--often the same faces night after night. In an effort to end the frustration and anarchy at the border, the immigration control initiative announced by Atty. Gen.