Foreigners enter U.S. unchecked

Washington Times ^ | Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | By Shaun Waterman

[JohnHuang2]

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Fewer than 3 percent of foreigners legally entering the United States by land are checked against watch lists of terror suspects, a report from the homeland security inspector general says. The report comes on the eve of President Bush's summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, raising concerns about the national security risks posed by porous U.S. borders. The Department of Homeland Security began last year to implement its US-VISIT program at land ports of entry. The program biometrically verifies the identity of foreign visitors by taking inkless fingerprints and enables visitors' names to be checked against watch lists of known and suspected terrorists and their associates.

[thoughtomator]

That's because they are checked in the visa-approval process.