President wants $41-billion for homeland security

MIAMI -- President Bush will ask Congress to devote $41.3-billion to homeland security in the 2004 federal budget, Tom Ridge, the secretary of the new department, said Thursday.

That figure represents an increase over the $37.7-billion spent last year on homeland security across the government, including the military. Ridge announced the budget increase in Miami, where he paid his first public visit to department employees since his confirmation last week.

On Thursday alone, Ridge said, workers would deal with more than 1-million people crossing U.S. borders, process 2.4-million pieces of luggage at airports and inspect tons of imported food products -- not to mention handle thousands of visa and green card applications.

"The sheer depth and breadth of this nation, the magnitude of what occurs here from sea to shining sea, means simply that one slip, one gap, one vengeful person can threaten the lives of our citizens at any time, in any number of ways," Ridge said. "We will organize to mobilize. It will lead to outcomes that better protect our country."

Under the president's proposal, the Homeland Security Department alone would have a budget of $36.2-billion in the fiscal year that begins in October. That is just short of a 10 percent increase above the combined budgets of all the agencies being rolled into it. A good deal of the new spending is devoted to upgrading Coast Guard ships and aircraft, agency officials said.

Ridge described plans to combine border security and inspection agencies to streamline the entry process and increase the chance of catching terrorists and weapons at the border.

People entering the United States would ideally meet with a single Homeland Security officer who would oversee all matters of customs, immigration and law enforcement, he said.

"Instead of four faces at the border, we'll have one," Ridge said at Miami's seaport. "The focus here is to help legitimate goods and people enter our country swiftly, and keep dangerous people and their weapons out."

In Washington, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee called on federal agencies to set stricter policies for screening identification at U.S. borders. He released the findings of a General Accounting Office report that showed undercover investigators made it into the country from Canada, Mexico and Jamaica by land, sea and air, using fake IDs and carrying undeclared cash.

"The agents on the front lines obviously need to be a lot more vigilant," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "Bouncers at college bars could spot the kind of fake IDs that were used by investigators. The officials in charge of border security need to be at least that good at their jobs."

In response to Grassley's comments, Ridge said, "It obviously raises some legitimate issues."

Johnny Williams, executive associate commissioner for field operations, said the undercover operation run by congressional investigators used American citizens in trying to fool agents at checkpoints in Florida, California and Washington state.

In the GAO's test of border security, immigration agents in some cases did not bother to check the false IDs that the investigators were using.

Williams said experienced border guards who have inspected thousands of people coming into the United States are not required to check identification papers for American citizens entering from Western Hemisphere countries.

Also . . .

3 ARRESTED IN BOMB PLOT: U.S. Special Forces and Afghan intelligence agents arrested three men Thursday and seized explosive material, uncovering an alleged plot to bomb U.S. and international targets.

The men were arrested in a pre-dawn operation at an undisclosed location in the Afghan capital, where authorities found makeshift bombmaking equipment and explosives, said Col. Roger King, a spokesman for the U.S. military at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul.

It was not clear which terrorist group, if any, the men were working with.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: The Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is launching a new automated system to track foreign students, has given colleges until Feb. 15 to comply, extending the deadline by two weeks because of technical problems.

LINDH MOVED: John Walker Lindh, 21, the American serving a 20-year sentence for helping the Taliban, has been transferred to the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville, Calif.

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