Bipolar border budgeting

THROWING MONEY AT A PROBLEM doesn’t solve it. Knee-jerk reactions don’t help, either. When it comes to illegal immigration, the Bush administration, apparently unable to decide which approach it prefers, has opted for both. But spending more on border enforcement will do little to curb illegal immigration and may even distract attention from better solutions to the problem.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush reaffirmed his call for immigration reform, noting a need for both stronger border enforcement and for “a rational, humane guest-worker program.” In this week’s budget proposal, however, the president lost his good sense and succumbed to hysteria, shifting emphasis to Border Patrol spending. Over the last 10 years, such spending has increased by many times, yet illegal immigration continues to climb.

A more sensible step would be a guest-worker program that makes temporary workers legal and reduces people smuggling, along with the risks and related crimes that go with it. In Bush’s budget there is a small nod in this direction, with $247 million to support such a program. But most of the $22.2 billion allotted for border and transportation security, up 10% over last year, is directed at enforcement: hiring 1,500 Border Patrol agents, buying high-tech detection gadgets and expanding fences along our southern border.

The other disappointment in the president’s budget is that he continued his annual practice of ignoring states’ requests for reimbursement for jailing illegal immigrants. California will spend $662 million this year to imprison illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, but it will receive only $107 million from the federal government to help pay for it.

Meanwhile, federal immigration jails are so overcrowded that many suspects caught by border agents are released with nothing more than a promise to show up later in immigration court. Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Homeland Security, asserted at a news conference on Thursday that this practice would end. The “catch and release” program has been an embarrassment for years, as a shortage of bed space in detention centers allowed many immigrants to be released into the United States. If Chertoff gets his way, detention space will be expanded and “catch and return” will become watchwords as migrants are returned to their home countries.

There is no quick fix to the problem of illegal immigration. A massive migration from Central America into the United States, mostly in pursuit of better wages, will not be stemmed by increased spending on bigger fences or more officers.

Many politicians fall for the temptation of promising better enforcement. And Americans want their country to better police its borders. But the solution is to balance enforcement with better control and regulation of the flow of labor into the United States. Unless administration policies address the whole problem, it’s not going to go away.