This week law enforcement sources said they uncovered a plot by an Iraqi terror team to get smuggled into the U.S. through Mexico , in an effort to reach the Bush ranch in Crawford , Texas . The team was armed with millions of dollars and wanted to hire smugglers to sneak them into the country, according to one official quoted in the New York Daily News. Secret Service agents would not comment on the suspects' whereabouts or the status of the threat. Details of the scheme were not available, but it is known that Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate George H. W. Bush in 1993, during a visit to Kuwait . President Clinton ordered a Tomahawk missile strike on Iraq when the attempt was discovered.

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The Enforcement Section of the INS’s 2002 Statistical Yearbook was released this week. According to the report, more than 70,000 undocumented aliens were removed last year. The Statistical Yearbook includes information about actions taken by immigration authorities and border patrol agents to prevent illegal entry into the United States and to apprehend and remove deportable aliens from the US .

View the full report: http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/aboutus/statistics/ENF2002list.htm

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Border security experts gave testimony this week in hearings before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, the federal commission looking into the 9-11 attacks. Their assessment of the homeland's security was grim, as they indicated that the nation's ports are porous, airport facilities are unprepared and border checkpoints are deficient.

Gerald Dillingham, an official who handles civil aviation issues for the General Accounting Office, said the nation's civilian airports and ports are not prepared in the event of another terrorist attack. He said that airport baggage checks were better but that only two percent of cargo containers arriving from foreign ports is checked.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine told the commission that he was unsure if it would have made any difference if the INS had been better funded and had more information, noting that most of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the airplanes on 9-11 entered the country with valid visas.

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This week Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of the Department of Homeland

Security's new Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, said the country is better protected against terrorists and weapons of mass destruction now than it has ever been. Bonner, in comments printed by the Washington Times, said the new agencies in charge of homeland security were off to a good start.

“"We have a comprehensive strategy for securing our borders against the threat of terrorism, which will also allow us to be more effective in protecting against illegal aliens and drug smugglers coming into the United States through, between and under our ports of entry," Bonner said.

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Many of Canada 's leading executives are pushing a proposal for a joint North American security perimeter, with the border between the countries reduced to a checkpoint managed by Canadian and American police officers. Members of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives will meet with Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge next week in Washington . Also expected to attend are Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Senator Hillary Clinton, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge, among others. The council wants to redistribute security forces away from the shared border to focus more on the continent's air and seaports. Members see faster border crossings as a secondary advantage to the plan. U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci and Ridge have been advocates of the proposal, but Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Manley have previously rejected it as overly simplistic.

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The chairman of a House subcommittee said the Department of Homeland Security has provided Congress with "no justification" for the $6.7 billion budgeted for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection for fiscal year 2004. Harold Rogers, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee, told Asa Hutchinson he was disappointed with the delay in explaining the budget request. Hutchinson, the undersecretary for border and transportation security, said the budget proposal reflects the administration's commitment to "securing the nation's borders, transportation systems, ports of entry and points in between."