Wrong message: Congress should force administration to abide by same laws that apply to us

The Bush administration has announced it will invoke the powers Congress gave to the Department of Homeland Security to disregard any laws that get in the way of its plans to build the border fence.

That means the Department of Homeland Security will ignore laws regarding environmental protection and land management that call for economic and environmental impact studies, or require that structures be build certain ways to lessen damage to the environment or wildlife habitat.

The announcement, which Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff made Tuesday, has raised protests because the border fence is being designed and built with no regard to those environmental concerns.

Worse, as those faced with federal lawsuits already have found, DHS has little intention of honoring property rights laws. We're lucky U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has reminded Chertoff that those laws are based on the Constitution, and can't be dismissed so easily, but the secretary addressed the time it's taken to deal with the lawsuits the DHS itself filed to encroach onto private property to lay the route for the fence.

"Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation," he said in his announcement of the filed waivers of U.S. law.

Environmentalists are quick to point out that the Lower Rio Grande Valley, where some 70 miles of fencing is planned, is about the only natural habitat left for several endangered and protected species, including the ocelot and jaguarundi. Chertoff is equally quick to point out that he's more concerned with border security than the fate or survival of any animal species.

It's easy to focus on Chertoff's disregard for U.S. law, and the Bush administration's apparent inability to see the irony of its willingness to disregard so many laws in the name of enforcing U.S. immigration policy.

How can we expect people to respect the laws, when those who pass and enforce them are so willing to ignore them?

This was a bad clause when Congress passed it in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and it's unconscionable that lawmakers never moved to repeal it in the half-decade since.

As silly as such reasoning is, we can't focus all the blame on Bush and his cohorts. It was Congress that signed off on the USA Patriot Act, which have the DHS the power to waive such laws - a power that so many people warned could be abused.

Some might justify the clause by noting that the act was passed in a rush by a Congress that still was in shock from the brutal attacks on the World Trade Center.

That may be, but more than six years have passed, and lawmakers haven't seen fit to rescind those powers that undermine the very legal basis for government operations.

Chertoff should be required to justify his actions, just like everybody else in this country, including the president himself. Congress should make it a priority to rectify its egregious mistake, and erase the ability for the DHS to ignore the laws that the rest of the world must live under.