NYT: U.S. Is Dropping Effort to Track if Visitors Leave

[Pirate Smile]

U.S. Is Dropping Effort to Track if Visitors Leave

By RACHEL L. SWARNS and ERIC LIPTON
Published: December 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 — In a major blow to the Bush administration’s efforts to secure borders, domestic security officials have for now given up on plans to develop a facial or fingerprint recognition system to determine whether a vast majority of foreign visitors leave the country, officials say.

Domestic security officials had described the system, known as U.S. Visit, as critical to security and important in efforts to curb illegal immigration. Similarly, one-third of the overall total of illegal immigrants are believed to have overstayed their visas, a Congressional report says.

Tracking visitors took on particular urgency after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when it became clear that some of the hijackers had remained in the country after their visas had expired.

But in recent days, officials at the Homeland Security Department have conceded that they lack the financing and technology to meet their deadline to have exit-monitoring systems at the 50 busiest land border crossings by next December. A vast majority of foreign visitors enter and exit by land from Mexico and Canada, and the policy shift means that officials will remain unable to track the departures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/washington/15exit.html?hp&ex=1166158800&en=27f5ff9dcbd78759&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[mike_c]

1. the Department of Homeland Security's main function will be...

...to keep the citizenry under control, not to regulate or secure the borders.

[Eric J in MN]

2. Why spend billions on a fence near Mexico...

...if they can't tell if people who come here on visas ever leave?

[babylonsister]

3. Does anyone feel safer now? How are they doing at tracking

those that are allowed to arrive?

[keopeli]

4. Bush invested our treasury in Iraq instead of our own security. And he still thinks he will be loved

after he's dead.

[greccogirl]

5. Oh, great.

[barb162]

6. This should have been one of the first things they did after 9-11

[gratuitous]

7. "They lack the financing and technology"

First, the Republicans sold out the religious whackos. But I didn't care because I wasn't a religious whacko.

Then, the Republicans sold out the poor, deluded assholes who thought they were in the top economic strata. But I didn't care because I wasn't a poor, deluded asshole.

Then, the Republicans sold out the superpatriots who liked to chant "We're number 1" as if life on earth was some fucking college football poll. But I didn't care because I wasn't a superpatriot.

Then, the Republicans sold out the xenophobes who didn't quite grasp the concept that their families had come to the United States from somewhere else. But I didn't care because I know that my ancestors got kicked out of every decent country in Europe.

Then, the Republicans discovered that they'd pretty much sold out everyone in their base. While I still didn't care, I did smile quietly.

[Eurobabe]

8. Lack of funding, and asshat has the gall to ask for $100B supplemental

for Iraq??

[Eugene]

9. GAO: Part of Border Program Not Doing Well (AP)

GAO: Part of Border Program Not Doing Well


Friday December 15, 2006 6:16 AM

By BEVERLEY LUMPKIN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security officials believe it will take five to 10 years
to develop the technology needed to implement the exit portion of a border security
plan without major disruptions, according to congressional investigators.

In a report released Thursday, the Government Accountability Office concluded that the
entry portion of the Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology program, known
as US-VISIT, has been installed at most of the nation's land borders with minimal
disruption.

-snip-

However, the congressional mandate for a similar biometric exit program has not fared
as well. The GAO, Congress' congressional and auditing arm, found that implementing a
biometrically based exit system similar to the entry system "would require new
infrastructure, and would produce major traffic congestion because travelers would have
to stop their vehicles upon exit to be processed - an option officials consider
unacceptable."

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6282199,00.html

The government is focusing on barriers, tracking, and high technology.
Enforcing existing laws against hiring undocumented workers would be
very helpful on the demand side of the issue.

[truthisfreedom]

10. It doesn't make profits for Haliburton or Carlyle, so bush doesn't give a shit.

Pardon my french, but I don't give a shit either at this point.