Posted on 08/01/2006 7:30:04 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification.
At nine border crossings on the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to Government Accountability Office testimony to be released Wednesday.
"This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
The findings, to be presented to the Senate Finance Committee, come as Congress considers delaying a 2007 deadline requiring passports or a small number of previously approved tamperproof ID cards from all who enter the United States.
Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said agents are trained to identify false birth certificates, driver's licenses and other documents. But he conceded that agents sometimes cannot verify more than 8,000 different kinds of currently acceptable IDs without significantly slowing border traffic.
"This creates a security vulnerability we were hoping to close" with the deadline at the end of next year, Agen said.
The GAO probe follows a similar inquiry in 2003 and 2004 when undercover investigators crossed unhindered into the United States at least 14 times using counterfeit drivers' licenses and, in one case, an expired, altered U.S. diplomatic passport. During that investigation, however, border agents in New York and Florida stopped three undercover officials who were using expired and forged passports, drivers' licenses or birth certificates.
By comparison, between February and June 2006, 18 GAO investigators breezed by border agents at checkpoints in California, Texas, Michigan, Idaho, Washington state, and twice each in Arizona and New York. In two cases — in Arizona and California — border agents did not ask the undercover investigators for any identification.
In a third case, in Texas, investigators offered to show identification — a counterfeit Virginia drivers' license. The border agent replied, "OK, that would be good," but released the investigators before inspecting it, according to the prepared testimony by GAO investigator Gregory D. Kutz.
Two of the 9/11 hijackers used fake Virginia residency certificates to get valid state ID cards needed to board the planes that flew into the World Trade Center. Neither GAO probe specified the location of any border checkpoints investigators went through.
The 9/11 Commission called for tougher ID card rules at borders to help prevent terrorists from entering the country. Responding, Congress in 2004 approved requirements for all travelers — including Americans — to show passports or a small number of other approved secure documents before entering the U.S.
Those requirements are supposed to take effect Dec. 31, 2007. But lawmakers from states that border Canada have since rebelled, contending the rules could hamper commercial and tourist travel. They are pushing to delay the rules by 17 months to ensure Homeland Security has proper technology to speed legitimate travel though border checkpoints.
Agen said Homeland Security agents intercepted 75,000 fraudulent documents from border travelers last year. The department last month arrested a Mexican fugitive suspected of running a counterfeit document operation whose fake ID cards have turned up in all 50 states.
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This is extremely disturbing.
At first glance, this (from headline) got my blood boiling, then after reading up to the above par, I got even more angry--and not at the BP.
More than EIGHT THOUSAND different kinds of "acceptable" ID's?
Is this coocoo or what?
What are they accepting, Yak Sheepherder draft cards from Tibet and Mongolian Drivers Licenses from Siberia?
Jeeez, the more I hear (and most of the time, I'd rather not) about the stupidity of our guvmint and what they do and allow, the more I want to have another glass of wine and tune it out--which is exactly what I'm going to do this very moment.
What ever happened to passports? How many countries are there in the world, about 110 or so?
Still shaking my head over the 8,000.
Does this include grocery store discount cards?
I like that. See my reply #4.
I bet if all of us here together tried for a week, we could not come up with even 800 acceptable form of ID's?
Currently there are overs 200 different kinds of Drivers licenses.
This has been a problem fro decades and is why most of us don't bother looking at the ID of American Citizens. We rely on instinct and physical indications of lying.
What the GOA won't tell you is, that they use US citizens to impostor US citizens. Our job is not to keep US citizens out of the country, it's to keep non us citizens out of the country.
"agents sometimes cannot verify more than 8,000 different kinds of currently acceptable IDs"
Clearly, if this many forms of ID are acceptable, our government could care less about keeping anyone out.
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