DHS Outlines Border Security Plan

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the government is making a new push to tighten security at our borders in an attempt to slow down illegal immigration and improve security.

According to an article by Mimi Hall in USA Today, Chertoff announced the plans in Texas last week, warning that “time is not on our side” to make the nation safer from potential terrorist attacks. His plan, he said, reflects a “legal and civic obligation ... to secure our borders.”

Hall says Chertoff did not say how much the new plan would cost, but she notes that the Bush administration's proposal for a guest-worker program, a key part of the plan, “has received mixed reactions in Congress.”

Among the points in Chertoff’s new plan are:

• Adding 1,500 new Border Patrol agents
• Building more fences
• Ending the “catch and release” policy that allows tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico to stay in the USA.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-03-borders_x.htm