Inspector General Urges DHS to Move Faster on Border Checks

By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

An internal audit urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to speed up deployment of its new border security system, saying that only a small percentage of people who cross into the United States have their identities matched against watch lists for suspected terrorists.

And the fastest way to boost the numbers of screened visitors, according to the DHS inspector general, would be to begin screening more incoming Canadians and Mexicans.

The DHS inspector general found only about 2.7 percent of foreign visitors are required to enroll in US VISIT, a system to check foreign travelers’ photos and fingerprints against terrorist watch lists and other lookout databases.

The system has been rolled out in phases since January 2004, when 115 airports began using it to screen people entering the country. By land, the system was launched at the 50 busiest border crossings on December 31, 2004. For people leaving the country the system is still in the testing stages, which means there is no way for US VISIT to know when people overstay their visa.

“We are concerned about the large number of travelers who are exempt from enrollment in US VISIT,” said the report, posted on the inspector general’s Web site on March 18.

US VISIT Director James A. Williams said in response to the report that the system has produced “tangible results,” netting 400 wanted criminals, smugglers, immigration violators and others involved in illegal activity.

Today DHS requires fingerprints from and photographs only a relatively small population of border crossers who need visas or passports to enter the United States. That population includes about 4 million border crossers a year — of the approximately 300 million who cross annually — and consists mostly of foreign nationals who are neither Mexican nor Canadian.

The inspector general urged DHS to expand the system to include, in particular, more travelers entering the United States from Canada and Mexico.

Canadians with visa exemptions, who accounted for 22 percent of foreign national land border crossings in 2002, are not required to enroll in US VISIT.

In most cases, Canadian citizens and permanent residents can enter the United States without a visa or passport. They can show a driver’s license to cross the border when visiting for up to six months. The inspector general found the policy posed a security threat because there is no way to confirm the identity of the person who presents a driver’s license. US VISIT could fix the problem by requiring travelers to present a document with fingerprints or other “biometric” identifiers on it that could be matched against terrorist watch lists and other databases.

“Because this group of travelers is not enrolled in US-VISIT, this vulnerability will continue,” the report said.

The intelligence overhaul legislation enacted in 2004 (PL 108-458) requires all travelers — including those for whom documentation was previously waived — to present passports or some other combination of documentation to cross the border by January 1, 2008.

The inspector general’s report recommends that DHS speed up this requirement for Canada.

Between January and August 2004, 13 Canadian citizens were intercepted at U.S. airports and pre-clearance facilities at Canadian airports after authorities checked passenger manifests against lookout databases. Eight of the thirteen were suspected of terrorist activities. In 1999, Algerian national Ahmed Ressaman was caught carrying explosives across the U.S.-Canada border after using false identities to obtain travel documents from Canada and France.

South of the Border

The report also cites gaps in the system when it comes to the United States’ other large neighbor, Mexico.

Many holders of Mexican border crossing cards — who account for about 43.8 percent of foreign national border crossings in fiscal 2002 — are also exempt from US VISIT.

There are few electronic records of the comings and goings of most of these people. Only those who intend to stay in the United States longer than 30 days or to travel more than 25 miles from the border need to register for US VISIT at a secondary inspection checkpoint. The rest simply flash their cards to Customs and Border Protection agents at land border checkpoints.

Last August, the United States actually increased the length of time that cardholders can stay in the United States without having their cards scanned from 72 hours to 30 days. “[T]his extension and subsequent exclusion of more [border crossing card] holders from US-VISIT enrollment moves away from achieving DHS’ goal of enrolling all foreign nationals entering and departing the United States,” the report said.

The IG report comes as President Bush prepares to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin on Wednesday to discuss trade and immigration.

Caitlin Harrington can be reached at charrington@cq.com

 

Passport requirements concern business people

Aubrey Cohen, The Bellingham Herald

Requiring Americans and Canadians to show passports when crossing into the United States from Canada could cause problems, according to a local businessman active in border issues.

"I think it's going to be a big deal," said Jim Pettinger, president of the cross-border business International Market Access Inc. and director of the Pacific Corridor Enterprise Council, a cross-border trade group. "Very few Americans actually have passports."

Whatcom County's borders are busy - nearly 2.7 million cars, trucks and pedestrians crossed the two Blaine border crossings in 2003, the most recent statistics available from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The new rules implement a law enacted in December. Federal officials said they expect cards for the Nexus border-crossing program - in place at the Peace Arch and Pacific Highway truck crossings in Blaine and at Point Roberts - will be acceptable in lieu of passports.

Business people are getting used to tighter travel rules, but tourists are not, Pettinger said.

"They're just bound to be showing up (at the border) full of ignorance with the wrong documentation and unprepared," he said. "Then probably the news stories will get out and a lot of them will assume they're not welcome anymore."

David Andersson, president of the cross-border council and a U.S. immigration attorney in Vancouver, B.C., said he suspects many Canadians also do not have passports. He noted that Whatcom County "certainly has its economic interest interlinked with the ability of Canadians to cross the border."

"It's just another thing to do to go to the United States," he said.

The United States, Canada and Mexico should work to harmonize standards they apply to people coming into each country from outside of North America, Pettinger said. "Then they could start relaxing some of the rules on crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders (with the United States)."

Reach Aubrey Cohen at aubrey.cohen@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2289. 

Biz talk: Uncertainty grows over new border controls

John Stark, The Bellingham Herald

A tighter U.S.-Canada border could be a reality sooner than we think.

That's a disheartening prospect to those who make a living in cross-border commerce and tourism.

Up till now, most Canadians have enjoyed exemptions from visa and passport requirements imposed on visitors from overseas. But change is coming.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 already requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to impose new document requirements for anyone crossing a border into the United States - including Canadians and returning U.S. citizens.

The exact nature of those new requirements isn't spelled out in the law, and the deadline for imposing them is Jan. 1, 2008. Local business people have been hoping that the relatively distant deadline would give Homeland Security enough time to develop a system that won't be too burdensome.

But now, the department's Office of Inspector General is suggesting that 2008 isn't soon enough.

"We encourage (Homeland Security) to expedite this requirement well before the deadline to improve the integrity of our immigration process," a recent inspector general's report said.

The report also charges that the present system that allows Canadians into the country with nothing but a driver's license is "a potential vulnerability to the integrity of the immigration process."

As recently as two weeks ago, Homeland Security officials were repeating assurances that there is no immediate plan to impose visa requirements on all Canadians, said Melissa Miller, project coordinator at the Whatcom Council of Governments.

But some fear that those assurances won't be worth much if Homeland Security succumbs to pressure to clamp down on the border quickly.

Bellingham immigration attorney Greg Boos said local border crossings don't have enough processing area today to handle rigorous new inspection requirements without big backups.

"It would mean massive lines at the border for the first couple of days," Boos said. "After that the lines would get shorter because nobody's coming to visit the United States."

Jim Pettinger, president of International Market Access Inc., is a bit more optimistic.

"As a businessman, I realize that security is a necessary evil, if you like, at the border," Pettinger said.

Up to this point, he said, federal officials have been "level-headed" in their imposition of security measures, making good on their promises to keep people and goods flowing as smoothly as possible.

But he also agrees that a more burdensome border-crossing identification system is likely to have some serious effects. Business people like himself will fill out the paperwork and get the credentials they need for cross-border business trips, but would-be tourists might not bother.

"I guess I'm happy that I'm not involved in tourism on either side of the border and I don't own a golf course down here," he said.

Some say border hassles are already bad enough.

David Neuman, vice president of sales and marketing for Canada-based Nature's Path Foods, said getting back and forth between the company's Blaine manufacturing plant and Vancouver, B.C., headquarters has gotten progressively more difficult for company employees.

"The bureaucrats are getting in the way of commerce, if you ask me," he said.

Don Alper, professor of Canadian studies at Western Washington University, said some visiting lecturers from Canadian universities have already experienced delays in crossing into the United States in recent years. He too fears that the tradition of a near-open border may be coming to an end.

"It does fly in the face of a couple of hundred years of history and tradition," Alper said. "Mobility across the Canada-U.S. border has been taken for granted ... This is going to change. It's already changed."

Whatcom Council of Governments Executive Director Jim Miller said levels of security at the border are likely to ebb and flow over the long term, but the short-term outlook is a bit bleak.

"By all appearances it's going to get more difficult to cross the border before it gets easier," he said.

Reach John Stark at 715-2274 or john.stark@bellinghamherald.com.