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  1. #1
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    U.S. drops effort to track when, or if, visitors leave

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/15/news/border.php

    U.S. drops effort to track when, or if, visitors leave
    By Rachel L. Swarns and Eric Lipton
    Published: December 15, 2006



    WASHINGTON: 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 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. Nearly 30 percent 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 on the United States, 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.

    A report released on Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, reiterated those findings, reporting that the administration believes that it will take 5 to 10 years to develop technology that might allow for a cost-effective departure system.

    Domestic security officials, who have allocated $1.7 billion since the 2003 fiscal year to track arrivals and departures, argue that creating the program with the existing technology would be prohibitively expensive.

    They say it would require additional employees, new buildings and roadways at border crossings, and would likely hamper the vital flow of commerce across those borders.

    Congress ordered the creation of such a system in 1996.

    In an interview last week, the assistant secretary for homeland security policy, Stewart Baker, estimated that an exit system at the land borders would cost "tens of billions of dollars" and said that the department had concluded that such a program was not feasible, at least for the time being.

    "It is a pretty daunting set of costs, both for the U.S. government and the economy," Stewart said. "Congress has said, 'We want you to do it.' We are not going to ignore what Congress has said. But the costs here are daunting.

    "There are a lot of good ideas and things that would make the country safer. But when you have to sit down and compare all the good ideas people have developed against each other, with a limited budget, you have to make choices that are much harder."

    The news sent alarm bells ringing in Congress, where some Republicans and Democrats warned that suspending the monitoring plan would leave the United States vulnerable.

    Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who is a departing subcommittee chairman on the House International Relations Committee, said the administration could not say it was protecting domestic security without creating a viable exit monitoring system.

    "There will not be border security in this country until we have a knowledge of both entry and exit," Rohrabacher said.

    "We have to make a choice. Do we want to act and control our borders or do we want to have tens of millions of illegals continuing to pour into our country?"

    Congressman Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who is set to be chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, also expressed concern.

    "It is imperative that Congress work in partnership with the department to develop a comprehensive border security system that ensures we know who is entering and exiting this country and one that cannot be defeated by imposters, criminals and terrorists," Thompson said Thursday.

    In January 2004, domestic security officials began fingerprint scanning for arriving visitors.

    The program has screened more than 64 million travelers and prevented more than 1,300 criminals and immigration violators from entering, officials said.

    The homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, and other officials often call the program a singular achievement in making the country safer. The U.S. Visit program fingerprints and photographs 2 percent of the people entering the country, because Americans and most Canadians and Mexicans are exempt.

    Efforts to determine whether visitors actually leave have faltered.

    Departure monitoring would help officials hunt for foreigners who have not left, if necessary.

    Domestic security officials say, however, it would be too costly to conduct fingerprint or facial recognition scans for land departures.

    Officials have experimented with less costly technologies, including a system that uses radio frequencies to monitor data embedded in a travel form carried by foreigners as they depart by foot or in vehicles.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member moosetracks's Avatar
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    NO finanaces to fund?

    Stop giving Billions to foreign countries, stop funding the U.N., stop paying entitlements to illegals, stop funding every organization that is around! And stop the pork!
    Do not vote for Party this year, vote for America and American workers!

  3. #3
    Senior Member dman1200's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by moosetracks
    NO finanaces to fund?

    Stop giving Billions to foreign countries, stop funding the U.N., stop paying entitlements to illegals, stop funding every organization that is around! And stop the pork!
    Yeah when it comes to pushing their globalist agenda, money is no object, but when it comes to keeping our country safe, it's we don't have the money.
    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

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