GAO NOTIFIES SENATE OF SECURITY BREACHES AT BORDER
The General Accounting Office, Congress' research arm, released a report Thursday documenting the failure of Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S. Customs Service officers to properly screen individuals at checkpoints.
The report was part of a test into the ability of the nation's border security system to detect whether individuals are using counterfeit identification documents to enter the country.
After presenting fictitious drivers licenses and birth certificates to U.S. agents at the Miami Airport and at ports of entry along the Mexican and Canadian borders, GAO personnel were cleared for entry, according to the report released to the Senate Finance Committee.
On one occasion at a sea port of entry from Canada the investigators were not even asked to show an ID. In another instance, an agent at the Mexican border accepted an investigator's assertion of citizenship without requiring any proof of identity.
Although the INS focuses on individual travelers, the GAO's findings could lead to legislation affecting the type of documents truck drivers need to carry to clear their vehicles through Customs. The Customs' Free and Secure Trade program for automated cargo release, for example, already requires drivers to carry a special FAST ID card issued after Canadian and U.S. customs and immigration agencies conduct a background check of the individual.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, who requested the GAO report along with Finance Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a hearing that the decentralized system that allows thousands of state and local offices to issue identity documents creates predictable loopholes for those with fraudulent intent.
'There is no standardized document for entry,' Baucus said in a prepared statement. 'Our border security officers don't have a checklist of authorized state driver's license formats. They are not consistently checking the imbedded holograms in the license as proof of authenticity.'