By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Tuesday, May 7, 2013


**FILE** Illegal immigrants prepare to enter a bus after being processed at ...

The Homeland Security Department’s auditor will paint a picture Tuesday of agencies not yet ready to administer a massive new immigration bill that would require it to boost border security and weed through petitions from millions of illegal immigrants.

In prepared testimony obtained by The Washington Times, Anne L. Richards, assistant inspector general for audits, will tell the Senate Homeland Security committee that the department has made major progress in the 10 years since it was formed, but there are still many outstanding problems with measuring data and planning for the future.

“In order to evaluate performance against the metrics in the proposed legislation or complete certain steps in the legislation, the department needs complete, accurate, and up-to-date information,” Ms. Richards will testify. “Several of our audits and inspections have identified instances of incomplete, inaccurate, and out-of-date data in many of the department’s programs and systems.”

Committee Chairman Tom Carper and ranking Republican Sen. Tom Coburn announced the hearing to take a closer look at the new Senate immigration bill, which would legalize most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., would rewrite the legal immigration system, and would call for new efforts on border and interior enforcement.

Officials from Homeland Security’s law enforcement agencies will testify that the bill gives them tools to build on the progress that has already seen border apprehensions drop dramatically — which they believe signals an overall drop in illegal immigration.

Drug seizures are also up, though, which suggests more smuggling across the border.

In particular, the enforcement agencies said they welcome new technology called for in the Senate bill.

But Ms. Richards, the auditor, said the agency was not yet prepared to handle flying drones along the border 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Indeed, it cannot even keep its current fleet of 10 aircraft running properly, according to an audit last year.

Another area that needs work is Customs and Border Protection’s ability to detect underground tunnels that smugglers are using to traffic drugs and weapons across the border.

“CBP has stated that it can best address this capability gap through the development and acquisition of detection technology. However, CBP has not been able to identify any existing tunnel detection technology that functions effectively in its operating environment,” Ms. Richards said.

The auditor said Homeland Security officials have plans to address many of the shortcomings, but she said “it takes time” to write and implement those plans.

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