Bush Touts ‘Smart’ Border for the U.S. and Mexico

President Bush vowed Thursday to create a “smart border” with Mexico, saying he wants to speed the flow of people and goods across the frontier but target would-be terrorists and those who smuggle drugs and immigrants into the United States.

The joint initiative with Mexico seeks to develop a “biometric” ID system--using such identifying characteristics as fingerprints or retina scans--for frequent travelers from both countries that would let them use commuter lanes at high-volume border crossings.

Another goal is to develop methods of inspecting and then sealing trucks at their points of origin in Mexico so they can get clearance before they reach the border, and perhaps use the fast lanes.

“I want this border to be modern,” Bush said in this Texas border city en route to an international aid conference in Mexico. “I want it to have the very best technology. I don’t want it to be a neglected part of our country.”

In a spirited speech to an adoring home-state crowd of several thousand civilians and soldiers from nearby Ft. Bliss, Bush said his commitment to modernize the United States’ southern border demonstrates that his interest in Mexico hasn’t waned despite a post-Sept. 11 preoccupation with the war on terrorism.

“Mexico is an incredibly important part of the futuro de los Estados Unidos. And the border is a very important part of our relationship,” Bush said, using a mixture of Spanish and English that delighted the cheering, flag-waving audience jammed into a hangar at the El Paso International Airport.

After his speech, Bush left for Monterrey, Mexico, to attend the United Nations conference and confer with Mexican President Vicente Fox. On his four-day Latin American trip, Bush also plans to visit Lima, the Peruvian capital, and San Salvador, capital of El Salvador.

As he began his trip, Bush told reporters in Washington that he had no intention of altering his itinerary despite a fatal car-bomb attack Wednesday night near the U.S. Embassy in Lima.

“Two-bit terrorists aren’t going to prevent me from doing what we need to do,” Bush said.

Before leaving El Paso, Bush further highlighted his commitment to border security by touring the customs inspection station for commercial cargo at the Bridge of the Americas, which links this city with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Wearing a blue customs cap, Bush viewed a state-of-the-art detection device that agents now use to randomly check commercial vehicles. He also examined a tour bus that was seized after agents discovered 1,500 pounds of cocaine hidden inside.

A more efficient border-crossing system has become an important goal for the administration in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported that more stringent border inspections since September have led to long and often unpredictable delays in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Such delays, which also have been reported along the U.S.-Canadian border, have hurt business and slowed tourism, chamber officials said.

Each year, more than 300 million people, about 90 million cars and 4.3 million trucks cross the Mexican border into the United States. Commerce between the two nations has tripled since 1993, with more than $245 billion of goods flowing between them last year.

Mexico is the United States’ second-largest trading partner. Canada remains the top U.S. trading partner, accounting for more than $365 billion in goods annually.

In discussing his goal for the border, Bush said: “On the one hand, we want the legal commerce, the people who travel back and forth on a daily basis. . . . On the other hand, we want to use our technology to make sure that we weed out those who we don’t want in our country--the terrorists . . . the smugglers, those who prey on innocent life.”

Bush’s director of homeland security, Thomas J. Ridge, signed an agreement with Canada in December to bolster the two nations’ border security while improving efficiency.

In his fiscal year 2003 budget, the president is proposing to spend about $11 billion for border security, including $380 million for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to construct a modern “entry-exit” system. The $11 billion represents a $2.2-billion increase from a year earlier.

Before leaving Washington on Thursday morning, the president and First Lady Laura Bush met with Milton Green, whose wife, Barbara, and her 17-year-old daughter, Kristen Wormsley, were killed Sunday in a grenade attack while attending church in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

They met at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland, where the two victims’ bodies were to arrive later in the day.

Also Thursday, the White House sent Congress a request for an additional $27.1 billion for needs related to the war on terrorism. More than half the funds--$14 billion--would go to the Defense Department.

Of the remainder, the administration is seeking $5.3 billion for homeland security, $5.5 billion to help New York recover from the Sept. 11 devastation of the World Trade Center, $1.6 billion in economic aid and to train and equip other countries to fight terrorism, and $750 million to help workers displaced by the recent economic slowdown.

In another development, Bush’s chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., has sent a memo to all federal agencies directing them to make sure that their Web sites don’t contain information that may be useful to terrorists, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.

As recently as February, Fleischer said, four government Web sites still posted information on how to make powerful explosives, build a germ factory, poison water supplies and spread contaminants.