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Monday, Oct. 2, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

From a Raleigh News & Observer editorial on the need for Bush to take border security seriously:

Before the president and Congress can move ahead toward meaningful immigration reform, representatives of both those branches of government agree: the borders of the country must first be secure. In other words, you can't talk about long-term reform without some stability being established on the border before discussions begin.

So it's time for a ringing alarm in the Department of Homeland Security, and one in the Oval Office as well, to signal a need for dramatic action regarding what looks to be the corruption of some U.S. Border Patrol personnel. Hundreds of criminal investigations have been launched. Some have to do with agents admitting people without the proper credentials in exchange for payoffs. Some involve stealing of government property. Some are about sexual harassment. There are claims of assaults.

Part of the problem, of course, is money. The Bush administration hasn't invested enough in enforcement, and there aren't enough inspectors to make sure the rules are being followed and the patrol agents are doing their jobs. The border is long and the country to be patrolled is vast, it's true, and securing it is no mean feat. But President Bush promised the American people that he would secure the borders and that the law would be obeyed, and it appears that promise is being broken every day by those responsible for carrying it out.

This administration has put billions of dollars into Iraq, and presumably will continue to do so. But it's clear that many other branches of government, from those that deal with the environment to education, are having to get by on short rations. That's bad enough, but in the case of the Border Patrol, it results in the corruption of the system and the deterioration of its credibility.

Instead of using its all-too-familiar technique of declining to accept responsibility, it's time the Bush administration acknowledged this serious crisis in the Border Patrol and moved, really moved, to do something about it.