Border agents let fake IDs go through

[one...two...tree 2,762]

by LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which

Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification.

At nine border crossings on the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to

Government Accountability Office testimony to be released Wednesday.

"This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_...er_insecurity_6

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

by LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which

Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification.

At nine border crossings on the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to

Government Accountability Office testimony to be released Wednesday.

"This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_...er_insecurity_6

oh joy i feel safe now

[one...two...tree 2,762]

by LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which

Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification.

At nine border crossings on the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to

Government Accountability Office testimony to be released Wednesday.

"This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_...er_insecurity_6

oh joy i feel safe now

Yeah....kinda makes the whole wall idea pointless.

[Lewis 0]

It's also a question of the tamperproof qualities of the present documents being utilized. As has been discussed before, the immigration problem is a complex problem for our congresspeople and political leaders to solve.

[Mirorgate 0]

... the immigration problem is a complex problem for our congresspeople and political leaders to solve.

stop.. please... my sides hurt

[Lewis 0]

... the immigration problem is a complex problem for our congresspeople and political leaders to solve.

stop.. please... my sides hurt

I was implying there is a solution to every problem and that our current leadership has not done enough to confront the problem. It's appears nothing will be done before the elections in November. Hopefully, that will be a time for people interested in voting to do so.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

... the immigration problem is a complex problem for our congresspeople and political leaders to solve.

stop.. please... my sides hurt

I was implying there is a solution to every problem and that our current leadership has not done enough to confront the problem. It's appears nothing will be done before the elections in November. Hopefully, that will be a time for people interested in voting to do so.

I'm sure Mirrorgate is thinking private industry will solve it if government just steps aside...

Border for Sale

Privatizing Immigration Control

by Joseph Richey, Special to CorpWatch

July 5th, 2006

Five major military contractors are competing to design a system to tackle up to two million undocumented immigrants a year in the United States. Boeing, Ericsson, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are working on proposals that focus on high technology rather than high fences, but ignoring some of the fundamental problems of immigration.

At each checkpoint along the path to citizenship or deportation -- from desert wilderness to urban labyrinth -- private contractors are expected to be hired to detect, apprehend, vet, detain, process, and potentially incarcerate or deport people seeking economic and human rights asylum in the U.S.

An indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, estimated at $2.5 billion, for the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) will be awarded September 30th 2006, to build a seamless web of new surveillance technology and sensors with real time communications systems for Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The plan also includes funds for additional personnel, vehicles and physical infrastructure for fencing, and virtual fencing for U.S. borders.

The new contract is part of the $43.5 billion Homeland Security (DHS) budget for 2007, with up to 20 percent increases in areas of internal enforcement and border protection. This has brought new fervor to the domestic security industry. Security executives around the country are pulling late hours preparing proposals and bids that will cost billions in federal tax dollars.

SBInet is part of a new Bush administration plan, announced in November 2005, for border security aimed at stopping illegal immigration along the more that 6,000 miles that make up America's land borders and dealing with the millions of undocumented aliens already in the country. While President Bush has said that "mass deportation is unrealistic," DHS is nonetheless ramping up CBP's "Expedited Removal Program" to detain and remove 1.5 million people along the border and the additional half a million apprehended 100 miles within US territory, according to the CBP and other agencies. Migrants who make it past the 100 mile mark and manage to stay 14 day without being caught are entitled to a hearing before a federal immigration judge.

The privatization of border security is unprecedented not only in cost but in the extent to which the federal government is ceding control to private companies.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13845

[Fischkoepfin 1]

Not very surprising, is it? I mean just look at airports; if you have a foreign passport you're grilled (even with green card/visa) and now they want fingerprints for all LPRs, but if you hold an American passport they wave you through most times. And the land borders are much worse because you don't really need a passport to get through. Maybe it is time to rethink the whole national ID-thing or introduce a standard for state I.D.s which would allows CBP to assess the validity of a document.

Immigration reform might actually need to begin with rethinking current ID-laws for everyone in this country.

[samir_shannon 0]

ohhh great.... i will sleep better tonight knowing terrorists can make it thru the borders.... loooooooooooovely

[KarenCee 3]

*BIG SIGH*