THE WAR AGAINST THE WAR ON TERROR FROM INSIDE THE ADMINISTRATION

Both Republicans and Democrats have dogmatic allegiances that hinder their ability to respond to the changed reality of a post 9/11 America. For the Dems, the biggest hurdle is their dovish wing's instinctive mistrust of the use of military force. For the GOP, its their laissez-faire/libertarian wing's instinctive mistrust of activist government. One of the untold stories of the INS' complete failure to reform after 9/11 is that the Bush Admnistration has placed a number of libertarian ideologues in charge of the INS - who prefer a dysfunctional INS to an effective one.

Talking Points comments on this excellent article by Nicholas Confessore in the Washington Monthly on how internal and external opponents of visa-tracking killed an auspicious initiative from the Clinton Administration, and then were rewarded with appointments and promotions by the Bush Administration.

And when the time came to fill vacancies at the INS during the summer of 2001, the Bush Administration dealt student tracking a few more body blows. James Ziglar, a self-proclaimed libertarian with no immigration expertise, replaced Meissner. And the power-behind-the-throne job of INS policy director went to none other than Stuart Anderson. Close to conservatives in Congress, the darling of Bush's energy secretary, and popular among immigration activists, Anderson was no doubt an easy sell. But he had also done more than perhaps anyone else to strangle student tracking in its crib.

"The best analogy I can draw about Stuart Anderson is something that an INS agent said to me: If you were going to hire someone to run the DEA, you wouldn't pick somebody who favors legalizing drugs," says a top Republican aide on the Hill. "And by putting Stuart Anderson in a ranking position in the INS, you've essentially done the same thing---you've got somebody who favors open borders running the agency that regulates the borders."

To sum up, by 1999, led by visionary official Maurice Berez, INS had successfully created and field tested a sophisticated student-visa tracking program. Within a year, an alliance of university officials and immigration enforcement opponents managed to (1) get Berez reassigned; (2) dumb down the system; and (3) delay its implemenation. The Bush Administration, upon taking office, appointed the point man for the lobbying effort that killed student-visa tracking to INS policy director & has promoted Peter Becraft (the INS official who reassigned Berez from the project) to deputy INS commisioner (and liason to Tom Ridge's reinvent-the-wheel student-visa-working group).

For careful observers of the Bush Administration, this fits a very familiar pattern of disabling regulatory agencies by appointing proxies of the regulated to "run" them. With the foxes guarding the henhouse in the INS we are heading for a mistake of Enron proportions. Only this time, it won't just cost thousands their life savings, it will cost them their lives.