EXECUTIVE SAYS MERGING OF AGENCIES NOT SECURITY SOLUTION

EXECUTIVE SAYS MERGING OF AGENCIES NOT SECURITY SOLUTION    An industry executive told lawmakers on Thursday that before the U.S. government considers merging the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol into one, it needs to give the matter more consideration.
   Michael Laden, president of Target Customs Brokers Inc., in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, referred to President Bush’s proposal in March to consolidate the agencies.
   While such a merger might eliminate redundancies and improve communications, it is not a silver-bullet solution to increase border security, Laden said. He suggested merging the three agencies into one branch strictly devoted to clearing people and cargo, while enacting one separate “super-agency” for border security.
   There have been recent suggestions that, if such a merging of the three agencies occurs, they might fall under the leadership of the Department of Justice. Laden opposed such a move, saying that Justice would be too enforcement-minded, and it is an agency far-removed from trade practices.
   'Laden said that before any such move is made, the three agencies need to improve their dialogue, while they continue the practice of their own disciplines. “We believe that there would not be a beneficial outcome from an arbitrary forced merger of agencies that have an obvious overlap at the border, but that are otherwise very different,” Laden said.