Posted on 10/12/2009 7:14:51 AM PDT by La Lydia
DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country. New concern was focused on that security loophole last week, when Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian who had overstayed his tourist visa, was accused in court of plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper. Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi’s checked in to the country but never officially checked out, immigration officials said...
...officials said, about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed.
Smadi’s case has brought renewed calls (for) a universal electronic exit monitoring system.
But despite several Congressional authorizations, there are no biometric inspections or a systematic follow-up to confirm that foreign visitors have departed. Homeland security officials caution that universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal...The wrong exit plan could clog trade, disrupt border cities and overwhelm immigration agencies with information they could not effectively use...airlines balked at an effort last year by the Bush administration to make them responsible for taking fingerprints and photographs of departing foreigners.
The current system relies on departing foreigners to turn in a paper stub when they leave....
Mr. Smadi was able to fade easily into society and encountered few barriers to starting a life here, according to court documents...He enrolled in high school, obtained a California identification card, landed jobs in two states and rented a string of apartments and houses. He bought at least two used cars, and even procured a handgun and ammunition...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Can’t = Won’t
attn: Bush
thanks a lot
They never intended to track them.
And Obama does not either, based on his comments to the Olympic committee about welcoming all who had not felt welcome before.
When it comes to immigration, both parties fail.
Exactly! How hard would it be to start a national database that is linked to IRS, DMV, police and banks (to start). You are 100% right, they just don’t want to.
Note to Homeland Security.... find 13-year old geek with a copy of Filemaker. It’s just a database!
Thanks, airlines, as well. Of course you know that the airlines successfully lobbied Congress for more than 10 years to avoid having to check the passports and IDs of passengers coming to the U.S. on international flights, and to avoid having to provide Customs and Immigration with a passenger list for each flight, despite countless "incidents," including the first World Trade Center bombing? That requirement was not written into the law until after 9.11.
It is for the same reason that the SSA will NOT tell you that illegals (how many and where) are using YOUR number. Computers are wonderful things; they do what you TELL them and ONLY that. The SSA overlooks multiple use of the same number because it fills their coffers. They, begrudgingly keep track of your contributions and keep the records for when you retire (by employer, location, etc.). They aren’t telling anyone SHIT!....it is simple to imagine the same kind of reasoning for not wanting to trace absconded ‘alien visitors’.
“Too costly and complicated....” Boom!
DHS is too busy looking at bumper stickers and tracing the ammunition purchases of American citizens.
bingo
I agree 100%. Maybe the job should go to UPS, which can track every package.
Each temporary visitor should have to post a bond, which would be forfeited if they fail to report leaving the country on time. The money could be used for enforcement.
It would be easy and cheap for real European’s to get a bond..it would be expensive for those at risk of flight.
It would be simple and self supporting. I know that this has been considered by the State Dept, but would be shot down by congress.
visa overstay ping
The tourism industry would blow a gasket. And it is complicated by our truly insane visa waiver program. But of course you are right.
Werent some of the Moslem terrorists who murdered 3,000 in the Twin Towers here on student visas that had run out ???
Yes.
Thinking of Vietnam - technically one of the poorest countries in the world - they’ve had no problem devising a visa tracking system that knows when you arrive, when you depart, and when you’re overdue.
They’ve had it since at least 1996.
Last time I went, the immigration guy at the Saigon Tan Son Nhat airport asked me about info that was only on my visa application from the Vietnamese embassy in DC.
As one who’s in IT, the notion that the USA cannot build and deploy a basic and low-cost visa tracking system in a year or less is simply preposterous.
This “failure” is deliberate.
Everytime we attempt to solve this problem, some communist calls us ‘racist.’ and we shrink away in fear like some vampire who’s seen a crucifix. Our society seems destined to be swamped by the (often genuinely racist) third world.
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