Posted on 05/24/2004 11:07:19 AM PDT by esryle
WASHINGTON -- The De-partment of Homeland Security is on the verge of awarding the big-gest contract in its young history for a far-reaching system that could cost as much as $15 billion and would employ a network of computer databases to track visitors to the United States long before they set foot here.
The contract, which will probably be awarded in coming days to one of three final bidders, is already generating considerable interest as federal officials try to significantly improve their ability to monitor who is entering at the country's more than 300 border-crossing checkpoints by land, sea and air, where they are going and whether they pose a terrorist threat.
Questions raised
But with that interest have come questions -- both logistical and philosophical -- from congressional investigators and outside experts. Will a company based outside the United States, in Bermuda, get the megacontract? How much will it end up costing? What about the privacy concerns of foreign visitors? And most critical, for all the high-end concepts and higher expectations, can the system really work?
Interviews with government officials, experts and the three companies vying for the contract -- Accenture, the Computer Sciences Corp. and Lockheed Martin -- reveal new details and potential complications about a project that all agree is daunting in its complexity, cost and national security importance.
The program, known as US-Visit and rooted partly in a Pen-tagon concept developed after the terrorist attacks of 2001, seeks to supplant the nation's physical borders with what officials call virtual borders. Such borders employ networks of databases and biometric sensors for identification at sites where people seek visas to the United States.
With a virtual border in place, the actual border guard will become the last point of defense, rather than the first, because each visitor will have already been screened by a global web of databases.
Once visitors arrive at U.S. checkpoints, they will face "real-time identification," or instantaneous authentication to confirm that they are who they say they are. U.S. officials will, at least theoretically, be able to track them inside the United States and determine if they leave the country on time.
Officials say they will be able, for instance, to determine whether a visitor who overstays his visa has come in contact with the police, but privacy advocates say they worry that the new system could give the federal government far broader power to monitor the whereabouts of visitors by tapping into credit card information or similar databases. The system would tie together about 20 federal databases with information on the more than 300 million foreign visitors each year.
The bidders agree that the De-partment of Homeland Secu-rity has given them unusually wide latitude in determining the best strategy for securing U.S. borders without unduly encumbering tour-ism and commerce.
Whoever wins the contract will be asked to develop a standard for identifying visitors using a variety of possible tools -- from photographs and fingerprints, already used at some airports on a limited basis since January, to techniques like iris scanning, facial recognition and radio-frequency chips for reading passports or identifying vehicles.
"Each of these technologies have strengths and weaknesses," Paul Cofoni, president of Com-puter Sciences' federal sector, said of the biometric alternatives. "I don't know that any one will be used exclusively."
Virtual borders is a high-concept plan, building on ideas that have been tried since the 2001 attacks.
But domestic security officials say making it work on a practical level is integral to protecting the United States from terrorist attacks in the decades to come.
'Risky endeavor'
But the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report in September that "the program is a very risky endeavor," given its enormous scope and complexity.
This this include Mexican 'coyotes' responsible for smuggling in the entire population of Mexico?
I'm sure the Mexicans sneaking across the border will telegraph their intentions. Another WASTE of money.
HA.
And what effect will it have on our southern border !?
yeah a real border here in arizona would be great. I am sick of the Illegals sucking up my tax dollars almost as fast as or DIM governer can spend it.
"These people must be living in the spirit world. ILLEGALS and TERRORISTS don't use passports or border crossings to enter the country. "
Sure they do. How do you think the 19 9/11 terrorists got into the country? Further, lots of illegal aliens came here on tourist or student visas and just stayed.
While many cross the border in other ways, a heckuva lot of illegals entered the country through normal crossing points, but not for the reason they stated.
We have no effective way at this time to find and deport these people.
Our Republican gov in Cali spends it pretty fast too.
But it's Arnnhoolddd! ok that does not make it right... I am just wondering how long does it go before someone does something irrational and dangerous, because the government fails to act up the illegal crossings.
I would settle for some real ones.
Unless they come across the Rio Grande?
Not a fluke. Policy.
A virtual program will, of course, stop 100% of the vitual river swimmers, dope and kerrorists but very little of the real thing. Why do these folks think that bads guys and Muslims will choose a border crossing point and not just sneak across like MILLIONS of illegal criminals do? Spend the money putting troops and ammunition BEWTEEN border crossing locations!
They might use passports, but they'll be fake, and if that get's too hard, they'll just join the conga line streaming across the SW Mexican border.
Tough to see how this will do much good.
Comming soon to a state border near you....
Wouldn't we be better off by changing the "rewards" to illegals?
How about eliminating welfare and other social services for all aliens, legal and otherwise?
How about mandatory sentencing for fraud and identity theft?
How about prosecuting judges with mandatory sentences who decide not to rule a guilty verdict simply because the INS would have to take the perpetrator of a violent crime?
How about more stringent rules against any employee that uses more than one identity during employment without proper certification from either the Bureau of Records (married/divorce name changes) or from court orders? (I have worked retirement plans, this happens a lot and the employers are not allowed to do ask any questions or to follow up).
How about turning ambulances back at the border?
How about hospitals not admitting anyone coming out of a Mexican ambulance? How about arresting the drivers?
How about tax penalties for those who require the government to translate its documents, services or transactions to a language other than English?
Punish and fine businesses, small and large, that knowingly hire illegals, even for day labor.
Absolutely amazing. Where to begin.......
Just when you think that the powers that be can not possibly get MORE clueless, they come out with something like this.
How will this program stop the 3000 to 5000 illegal criminal trespassers that cross our borders between legal checkpoints EVERY 24 HOURS?
El Presedente Jorge Booooosh needs to buy a clue.
"And how will this help stop the millions that cross our borders each year?"
It won't.
Thanks.
I didn't forget that item though.
There are strict rules as to what kinds of questions can ask.
I will agree if the rules are changed that the businesses can ask any question that relates to finding out if someone is here illegally.
Not only that, but you have to produce certain docs to fill out the I-9 portion of your pre-employment paperwork. One of those docs is proof of citizenship or national or resident alien proof.
Some employers ignore this and don't bother to check.
Fine them. Into bankruptcy.
I agree with everything you said. But you left out a huge violation in which Employee A produces a valid appearing proof of citizenship (belonging to someone else) and presenting it as his own. He signs the W-9 to certify the tax id and name.
One year later, he presents a completely different social security card with a completely different name. It could even be a woman's name. The employer is prohibited by law from pursuing or rejecting this. The employer also is getting dinged $50 a pop for each taxpayer ID filed that doesn't match the IRS records.
This is a bigger and more prevalent problem than people understand.
The illegal is making free use of the identity and is also affecting the real owner's tax responsibility and retirement benefits. Not to mention the havoc that can be created if the illegal uses that tax id to "open" a new credit card.
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