Budget Proposal Falls Short on Border Patrol Agents

President Bush’s proposed 2006 budget for the Department of Homeland Security calls for 210 additional Border Patrol agents instead of the 2,000 mandated in legislation signed last year, an agency official acknowledged Wednesday.

Still, Homeland Security officials told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the U.S. was safer than before the department was created in March 2003.

Democratic senators questioned whether Bush’s $12.9-billion budget request for fiscal year 2006, which begins Oct. 1, was sufficient for three customs and immigration agencies charged with maintaining the integrity of the nation’s borders.

“For the third year in a row, the president has submitted a budget for the Department of Homeland Security that ignores the stark reality of the resources needed to secure the homeland,” said Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.).

The 210 additional Border Patrol agents are earmarked for the Southwest, specifically for high-traffic areas such as the Arizona corridor.

There is a dearth of agents on the Canadian border, said Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But solving the problem solely with an increase in agents is not feasible, he said.

“There is a limit to how many Border Patrol agents the agency can absorb and still maintain a cohesive law enforcement force,” said Bonner, who suggested increasing the use of technology as well.

Bonner’s agency apprehends about 3,000 people a day entering the country illegally, he said, and seized more than 2 million pounds of illegal drugs in fiscal year 2004, which ended Sept. 30.

To aid the agency’s effort, the budget calls for $20 million to replace 12 of the Border Patrol’s Vietnam-era helicopters and $125 million for technology that can detect catastrophic weapons, such as radioactive “dirty bombs” or nuclear devices, entering the country.

The budget for a second Homeland Security agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will increase 13.5%, to $4.4 billion, under the proposed budget. Most of that increase will go toward detaining and removing illegal immigrants and gathering intelligence. The agency also operates the Federal Air Marshal Service and enforces laws against drug trafficking, money laundering, arms exports and human smuggling.

Under the proposed budget, the agency would be able to detain more illegal immigrants awaiting deportation hearings, and would be able to end a yearlong hiring freeze, said Assistant Secretary Michael J. Garcia.

The agency that processes immigration requests will operate on a budget of $1.9 billion, much of which comes from fees. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has reduced the number of backlogged applications for immigration benefits by almost half over the last year.

The agency is on track to meet Bush’s goal of a turnaround period of six months or less per application by 2006, said its director, Eduardo Aguirre Jr. Many of the agency’s applications and services are available online.