Posted on 12/21/2004 12:58:24 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Border Patrol agents assigned to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identified and arrested 23,502 persons with criminal records nationwide through a new biometric integrated fingerprint system during a three-month period beginning in September, CBP officials said yesterday.
Most of those arrested were foreign nationals.
"This 21st-century biometric identification technology is a critical law-enforcement tool for our CBP Border Patrol agents," said CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. "It allows CBP Border Patrol agents to quickly identify criminals by working faster, smarter and employing technology to better secure the nation."
Mr. Bonner has described the new system as "absolutely critical" to CBP's priority mission of keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country, adding that it gives the agents the ability to identify those with criminal backgrounds "we could never have identified before."
The program, known as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), is a biometric identification technology enabling Border Patrol agents to search CBP's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) and the FBI's criminal fingerprint database simultaneously, CBP spokesman Mario Villarreal said.
It allows Border Patrol agents to rapidly identify people with outstanding warrants and criminal histories by electronically comparing a live-scanned 10-fingerprint entry against a comprehensive national database of previously captured fingerprints, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Stucco is large in the southwest.
Find a human the speaks english?
No amount of progress makes you guys happy does it?
But no Al Qaeda terrorists? All US criminal suspects. It appears anyone gets finger printed when they cross the border not only the foreigners.
My exhusband is a Border Patrol agent.
You are incorrect about much of that.
ping
The program, known as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), is a biometric identification technology enabling Border Patrol agents to search CBP's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) and the FBI's criminal fingerprint database simultaneously, CBP spokesman Mario Villarreal said.
That is just great. Now, where the hell are they gonna plug it in?
I know you're being facetious...all illegals apprehended are processed through border patrol stations in Douglas, Naco, Willcox, Nogales, Tucson, Ajo, Yuma, etc.
And we do have electricity. They finished installing the last distribution lines a little over 2 months ago!
Good news! Where's the party?
This is definitely an improvement in obtaining criminals histories of illegal aliens. Unfortunately, it also lengthens the amount of time it takes to process aliens. It's not a big deal when you have one or two but it is when you have to process 20 or 30 illegals. Just becuause criminal aliens are identified by IAFIS doesn't mean they are going be prosecuted. They have to meet certain guidlines in order to be prosecuted.
Ajnin, you're absolutely correct.
The answer would logically be to staff the stations with a cadre of officers whose sole duty is to process the illegals apprehended by the field officers. Although, there may be a chain of custody issue there...no, that's OBE...I wouldn't care how a criminal arrived at the station, once he is determined (at the station) to be a criminal through an IAFIS check is when the chain of custody begins.
Wouldn't that take a considerable burden off the shoulders of the field officers?
Sorry, meant to say Hwy 92.
Good post. One of the major problems with border enforcement is the difficulty in processing illegal aliens.
I suspect there are a lot of folks who've never taken the time to consider what it means to apprehend and process literally hundreds of criminals per day.
Imagine the workload if one was talking of their local city cop or deputy sherrif...
PILGRIM: Tonight, grave new concerns about who is trying to sneak into this country illegally and how they are doing it. The Homeland Security Department says that stolen passports are far too often making it past immigration agents.
At the same time, new technology used by border guards has caught 23,000 suspected criminals trying to sneak through our borders in the last three months.
.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even when the government is on the lookout for a known stolen passport, there's a good chance its holder will still get into this country.
A government review of five years of immigration and customs data found 136 entries with stolen passports. Seventy-nine were with passports that were not yet flagged as stolen, but 57 were with passports the government knew were stolen.
*****And, unbelievably, after September 11, 33 people used stolen passports that this government was looking for and still made it into the country. This review covered only passports from six European countries. There's no telling how many more passports from other countries made it through.*******
The inspector general's review suggested that Customs and Border Patrol better scrutinize foreigners whose passports are flagged as stolen and keep better records. Officials say they are making progress.
WILLIAM HEFFELFINGER, CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: We're doing a great deal of work to identify everyone who comes in and out of this country. So, if there's some way that someone might attempt to get in using stolen passports, we want to address that, and we have.
ROMANS: A separate Border Patrol initiative shows reason to fear many of those people illegally crossing our borders. *****New technology used by the Border Patrol detected an astonishing 23,000 dangerous criminals trying to sneak into this country, and that's just from September to November this year.*****
Using a high-tech fingerprint database, border guards identified 84 foreigners suspected of murder, 37 for kidnapping, 151 wanted for rape, 212 for robbery, 1,200 for other assaults and 2,600 for dangerous drug crimes.
All these suspected criminals tried to enter this country through our porous land borders, mainly the border we share with Mexico, but also Canada, 23,502 criminals in just 91 days this fall. Border Patrol agents arrested all of them.
ROMANS: It's impossible, Kitty, to know how many more slipped through the cracks.
PILGRIM: It's shocking about the passports. What are they doing to try to stop this?
ROMANS: A couple of things, technology, trying to automate more of this, but also an awful lot of common sense. Some of these immigration customs agents are simply asking questions, saying you're on a lookout list, I have a list here that says this is a stolen passport and then letting them through if the person has a good enough explanation. That's not going to be allowed anymore.
PILGRIM: Talking their way through. That's pretty...
ROMAN: Talking their way through in many cases.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
Aired 12/21/04
It isn't "standard procedure" to do that.
That sort of thing is case specific and is dependent on more factors than you guys are willing to accept in most cases.
You personally may be different, but so many of the rabid anti immigration people on here are not going to be happy until we shoot every Mexican on sight.
This is a very complicated issue and people that can't see that are not being reasonable, mature or logical.
Like I said, that is not a personal slam.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.