The Hill
By Julian Hattem
March 15, 2016
Bureaucratic
problems and technological flaws are poking holes in U.S. border
security and have allowed “known human traffickers” to legally enter the
country with their victims, a federal
watchdog agency testified on Tuesday.
Speaking
before a Senate committee, the Department of Homeland Security’s
inspector general listed deep concerns about the government’s efforts to
modernize its border controls, highlighting
a potential national security risk.
Homeland
Security officials “accomplish their mission while working in an
antiquated system of paper-based files more suited to an office
environment of 1950 than 2016,” Inspector General
John Roth told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Combined
with poor digital tracking of immigrants’ data and other flaws, the
problems make it more difficult to speedily and effectively process
people coming into the country, Roth claimed.
“There
is also risk to our national security, in that we may be admitting
individuals who do not meet the requirements for a visa,” he added.
Roth’s
report on Tuesday found “numerous technical problems” with the
government’s electronic immigrant system, which will take another three
years and $1 billion to update.
Government
analysts also found “numerous” instances in which documents were
printed with incorrect names or wrong addresses, potentially sending
hundreds of green cards to the wrong people.
The
concerns expressed are likely to further inflame concerns about
security mechanisms within U.S. visa programs. The programs have been
under intense scrutiny following terror attacks in
Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., late last year that left scores of
people dead.
Immediately
following those attacks, U.S. officials scrambled to shore up security
systems to prevent foreigners intent on causing harm from using legal
visa processes to come into the country.
“Are
we doing all we can to screen and vet these applicants before they
become a threat to the country?” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the head of
the Homeland Security Committee, wondered on
Tuesday.
León
Rodríguez, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said
that the watchdog’s report did not account for changes implemented since
its analysis ended last summer.
“We
undertook a number of improvements,” Rodríguez said. “And what I would
ask is both that the [inspector general] would come back and also be
able to engage with this committee about those
improvements so that we can give you the confidence that in fact our
automation process is successful and is poised for even greater success
in the future.”
Late
last year, Congress narrowed a tourist program allowing visitors from
38 countries to visit the U.S. without a visa for up to 90 days. The new
changes revoke that visa-free option for
people who are dual citizens of or had recently traveled to countries
considered hotspots of terrorism. Some congressional Republicans erupted
in anger in recent months, however, when the Obama administration
appeared to impose a number of unilateral changes
limiting the new protocols.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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