Much More Than Money Is Needed : Required: a new border management agency

President Clinton came into office candidly admitting he did not know precisely what to do about illegal immigration. But he got off to a good start Tuesday when he announced changes in U.S. immigration procedures, along with more spending to make the nation’s borders more secure.

One proposal sure to be widely applauded is a plan to spend an additional $172.5 million for more U.S. Border Patrol agents and to improve the “lookout” list of suspected terrorists and foreign criminals who should be kept out of the country. No single incident focused attention on inadequate border control more than the New York World Trade Center bombing, in which the suspects were followers of a radical Egyptian sheik who managed to enter the United States despite being on the “lookout” list.

Also worthwhile is the President’s plan to expedite refugee asylum procedures. In recent years those slow and unwieldy procedures have increasingly been abused by foreign job seekers making phony political asylum claims to extend their stays for months or even years. This situation is what has lately drawn so many Chinese refugees, crammed aboard old ships off the U.S. coast waiting to sneak ashore and file for asylum through a loophole resulting from China’s harsh policies on childbearing. If the asylum process is shortened from the current 18-month average to five days--and this in fact is the Administration’s ambitious goal--that could help stem the flow of immigrants.

But Clinton’s proposals, while a good start, must be followed up with some creative thinking if they are not to go the way of past immigration reform plans, which fell short after beginning with great promise. In that regard, it’s encouraging that Clinton asked Vice President Al Gore to oversee his Administration’s work on immigration. Part of Gore’s interest has been in “reinventing” government--taking a hard look at the bureaucracy to see whether dramatic, even radical, restructuring could help it be more efficient. We have a suggestion: While the Border Patrol and its parent agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, can use the money Clinton wants to add to their budget, they may also be so outmoded that no amount of money or manpower can make a real difference.

In fact, The Times recommends that Gore, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and Clinton himself work to create a new, technologically advanced agency to oversee our borders and ports of entry. A new agency would not just exclude illegal immigrants but expedite the movement of legal goods and workers into the United States as the world’s economy becomes ever more integrated. Tough-minded, long-range thinking is needed to truly get a handle on immigration as this country heads into the 21st Century.