Posted on 03/05/2004 2:38:10 PM PST by Pa' fuera
More than 10 million mexicans with border crossing cards will not be processed when they enter the United States for visits of less that 72 hours or visits that do not extend beyond the 40 kilometer border region, announces Homeland Security under-secretary Asa Hutchinson.
Giving testimony before the Government Reform Comitte in the House of Representatives, Hutchinson specified that BCC (Border Crossing Card) holders will be photographed and fingerprinted, like other visitors, if they spend more than 72 hours in the US or travel beyond the 25-mile border region.
“The BCC already incorporates the biographic and biometric data of the visitor, he added, by warning that the card carrier is using it in a manner different from its purpose.”
“Those carriers who use the card as a visa by traveling beyond the border region and stay longer than 3 days in the US – will be processed (through US Visit) in the Secondary Inspection area, like other visitors are”, explained Hutchinson.
If the use of the BCC is as a local pass, the holder will not be processed.
The US Visit program, which began to function last year, and was installed in 115 airports and 14 ports on January 5, gathers the biometric data of visitors to the US to verify their identity and compares the data on the visa with the data integrated into a system that eventually will house millions of foreign visitors’ photos and fingerprints.
Hutchison stated that there are already numerous security measures in place on both the Canadian and Mexican borders.
The system was put into place as a consequence of the September 11 terrorist attacks, when extremist islamics who had overstayed their visas hijacked four passenger aircraft and were able to crash three of them into the twin towers of New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Some three thousand people died in the attacks.
The exemption is considered as a gesture to president Vicente Fox, who this weekend will visit President Bush in his Crawford, Texas ranch. It is also seen as a measure to facilitate trans-border commerce.
The Border Crossing Cards are normally given to people who live in the border zone once a criminal background check has been performed and after the individual has been interviewed and screened by State Department personnel.
The majority have businesses or jobs or need to make quick visits to the US side of the border.
Hutchison also informed that Homeland Security will implement pilot programs this year at the 50 busiest cross-border locations, using machine readers of the biometric information contained on BCCs and visas. These programs have the objective of improving border administration and to expedite the crossing of the BCC and biometric visa holders.
damn right, single issue on the most important issue facing our country
Well, the post had Mexicans and President Fox in the heading. If you don't like discusssions of Mexico, that should have tipped you off.
but they haven't been completely screened. They've only made it through a flimsy State Department process. That process is abused by millions of these card-holders to legally enter the US, where they illegally overstay and become illegal aliens. US Visit would have worked as a deterrent to the misuse of the cards, but now we're seeing the Bush administration facilitating legal entry when it knows the legal entry leads to illegal overstays.
In fact, the screening done to obtain the card is more thorough then the one done at entry. The information used to process the Visa is laser imprinted into the card and then matched against on line files at the point of entry (which includes the photograph and other information).
While it would be possible to make a fake card that looked similar, it would be very difficult to have that same card actually scan at the point of entry and access files that have somehow been altered to match the individual holding the card.
While this could be done, given enough time and money, why go through all the hassle and cost when they can just take their chances entering the country illegally?
This decision simply eliminates redundancy, improves the process for those LEGALLY entering the country for business purposes, and allows us to then use the time and money in more critical areas.
I kind of like the idea of making the system more efficient and using our resources where they will do the most good.
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