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Homeland Security's #1 Job Is Protecting Our Borders
Posted by PHX - U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl on Monday March 21, 2005 at 2:35 pm MST

Last week I co-chaired a joint hearing of Senate subcommittees examining the work of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department to ensure that terrorists are not allowed to enter the United States posing as legitimate visitors.

Not long after the 9/11 Commission's report illustrated numerous gaps in our border security systems, and missed opportunities to intercept the Al Qaeda hijackers, I won passage of an amendment to intelligence reform legislation that required most foreign nationals seeking temporary visas to be personally interviewed by State Department consular officers, and complete their paperwork fully and accurately. As hard as it is to believe, most such applicants (including the hijackers) weren't being interviewed previously - even those coming from countries with known terrorist operations, and even those whose applications were incomplete or otherwise suspicious.

Earlier, along with three of my Senate Judiciary Committee colleagues, I had also won passage into law of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act which added safeguards to ensure that visa applicants were better screened, by: mandating specialized training for consular officers to recognize terrorist threats; requiring the State Department to electronically share information on visa applicants with DHS; and mandating that travel documents and passports contain biometric identifiers and authentication features that are machine-readable and tamper resistant.

Thus, we were very interested at last week's hearing to learn more about the progress that has been made since September 11, by both the State Department and by DHS (which was given additional responsibility for visa policy and oversight of the issuance process when it was created in 2002).

Our consulates abroad are often the first place that representatives of the United States government encounter foreign nationals who seek to enter our country. We count on the professionals staffing these offices to extend our welcome to the world, but also to protect the integrity of the visa application and issuance process, and keep a watchful eye on travelers who seek to exploit the system in order to do us harm or to violate our immigration laws. It is absolutely imperative that the Departments of State and Homeland Security balance their diplomatic mission with the vital job of protecting our national security. At the hearing, DHS officials outlined their efforts to ensure that the visa application and issuance process at our diplomatic and consular posts abroad is secure. A comprehensive training program for the officers who staff our ports of entry has been established, including techniques for recognizing behavioral cues, strategies for interviewing and questioning, analysis of documents to detect forgeries. But, while the department's oversight of the visa process in some high-risk countries has improved, both DHS and State still have much work to do in expanding oversight and training consular officers to identify possible terrorists. There's also a long way to go in implementing the Border Security Act's mandate to expand the use of biometric identification technology. Congress has already extended the deadline once; it is crucial for the Bush Administration to work with other counties to ensure their compliance.

Saudi Arabia, for example - home of Wahabism, the virulent anti-American strain of Islamic extremism that fostered Al Qaeda - as well as other high-terrorist risk countries are not yet close to coming into compliance with the biometric deadline. And despite the congressional mandate to tighten up procedures at the beginning of the visa process, I was disappointed that DHS representatives were unable during the hearing to provide even an estimate of the number of personal interviews of visa applicants from high-terrorist risk countries.

Both DHS and the State Department have stepped up their efforts on national security, but it's clear that, even three years after Sept. 11, they still have a long way to go to ensure that those who wish us harm do not enter the United States. As chairman of the subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security, I will continue our oversight.

Sen. Kyl serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees and chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee.