Posted on 12/22/2002 6:06:07 PM PST by FreeSpeechZone
THE STATE DEPARTMENT Consuls Lax in Screening for Visas, Report Says
ASHINGTON, Dec. 21 The State Department's system for issuing nonimmigrant visas remains too lax and poorly financed to screen out determined terrorists, the department's inspector general has found.
In a review conducted between July and November, investigators determined that many consular officials were inexperienced or inadequately trained, that visa review procedures varied from embassy to embassy and that a program to identify terrorism suspects needed more money.
The Sept. 11 attacks should have brought about "immediate and dramatic changes" in how visas are handled, the inspector general's office said.
"This has not happened," said the report, released this week. "A fundamental readjustment of department leadership regarding visa issuance and denial has not taken place."
The review was conducted at the request of Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, after the Sept. 11 attacks highlighted shortcomings in the nonimmigrant visa system. The findings were based on visits to 27 embassies or consulates, many of them in the Middle East.
Nonimmigrant visas are issued to foreigners who are expected to stay only temporarily in the United States for things like sightseeing, medical treatment, business or study.
Partly out of concerns about security problems in the State Department's visa programs, Congress recently transferred responsibility for visa policy to the new Department of Homeland Security. But the State Department will continue to run the programs.
In a report issued last month, the General Accounting Office, an investigative unit of Congress, also found security breakdowns in the visa programs.
In a reply to the inspector general, Maura Harty, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, said that many of the report's recommendations had already been undertaken. Ms. Harty also argued the office had made "immediate and dramatic" improvements, including doubling the number of names on a watch list of possible terrorists used in visa reviews.
The State Department's failures before Sept. 11 "are but a piece of a total picture that includes the entire national security and immigration policy apparatus of the United States government," she wrote.
One of the major shortcomings documented by the inspector general was that visa applications were typically handled by junior officials who considered their work a "rite of passage" to be completed as quickly as possible.
The report recommended that the department require two-year rotations for consular section jobs to increase the longevity and expertise of visa reviewers. It also called for requiring all consular officials to receive more extensive language and interview training to help them identify dishonest applicants.
The report found that some embassies were more lax than others about requiring in-person interviews, and suggested that longer, better interviews could weed out terrorists. It also raised concerns that some applications from travel agents were not reviewed rigorously enough.
The report also found that the databases used in many visa offices were inadequate, lacking, for instance, information from the State Department's fraud investigations.
The report included a classified section raising concerns about the Visa Viper program, which gathers information from embassies to create a central watch list of suspected terrorists that is available to consular officials
"This has not happened," said the report, released this week. "A fundamental readjustment of department leadership regarding visa issuance and denial has not taken place."
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.