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Foreign travelers have entered the country using illegal passports the government knows are stolen, and the whereabouts of some with possible terrorist links remains unknown, according to a report released Monday.

"Aliens applying for admission to the United States using stolen passports have little reason to fear being caught and are usually admitted," Richard Skinner, acting inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, concluded in the report.

The report examined the use of stolen passports from 27 countries that are part of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. Under the program, travelers from the countries are able to enter the United States without immigrant visas. Twenty-two of the countries are in Europe. The others are Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore.

The report criticized the Customs and Border Protection bureau for inconsistent policies and incomplete record-keeping at ports of entry, and recommended that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau take action to determine whether violators are still in the country.

"Because exit records are unreliable, we do not know whether any of the aliens who entered the United States using stolen passports departed, or remain in the country," the report stated.

The review tracked 136 foreigners who entered the country using stolen passports. Some were able to get through ports of entry even though their passports were reported as stolen and they were entered into a government database in the "lookout" category.

Lookout entries are generated when an agency determines that an alien may be inadmissible into the United States, or may be of interest to a law enforcement agency. Reasons for posting a lookout include immigration or visa violations, alien smuggling, suspected criminal activity or actual convictions, and suspected terrorist affiliations.

"While the 136 successful entries using stolen passports is a relatively small number, it is significant for several reasons," the report noted. "First, the passports were obtained by criminal acts. Second, though small, the number could and should be zero, at least for those admissions that occurred after lookouts were posted. ... Third, there was no law enforcement pursuit once it was recognized that an illegal entry had occurred."

Indeed, 57 out of 78 aliens using "lookout" passports were admitted into the United States, a success rate of 73 percent. Of the 57 aliens admitted, 33 entered the country after Sept. 11, 2001.

"We could not determine why the primary inspectors admitted the aliens with the stolen passports," the report added.

The report said the lack of routine reviews to determine whether stolen passports have been used successfully and the lack of follow-up investigations were "particularly alarming" because some stolen passports may have connections to known terrorist activity.

On June 6, 2001, for example, thieves stole 708 blank passports from a foreign city that was also home to an al Qaeda cell that played a significant role in providing financial and logistical support for the 9/11 terrorists, according to the report. The theft was not reported to the U. S. government until April 2004, after 20 aliens successfully entered the country using some of the stolen passports. But CBP only has departure records for two of the aliens.

"We could not confirm, however, that any of the aliens actually left the country, nor can we confirm that any are still here," the report stated. "Because of the geographic association of where the theft of the passports occurred and the al Qaeda terrorist cell, we believe that the activities of these 20 aliens while they were in the United States and their current locations warrant further investigation."

The review found, however, that CBP does not have a formal process for providing information concerning the use of stolen passports to ICE. The report made several recommendations for CBP and ICE to improve their policies and actions.

Asa Hutchinson, DHS undersecretary for border and transportation security, generally agreed with the report and recommendations, although he expressed concern in a written response that "overly broad and generalized conclusions were drawn based on a small and nonstatistical sample."

Hutchinson said CBP and ICE "have already taken steps toward implementing meaningful corrective actions" since the review was completed.

He added that the department now requires travelers from visa waiver countries to have machine-readable passports. Starting Oct. 26, 2005, passports must have biometric information to be valid.

COMMENTS

• OIG and the powers that be are only suggesting an ICE/CBP merger because they were prompted to do so to solve a budgetary crisis. CBP has bucks, ICE does not. Nothing will change except to reconstruct the U.S. Customs Service under the umbrella of CBP. Immigration duties are the heart of Homeland Security, but counterfeit beanie babies, cigarettes, and Gucci handbag interdiction are at the heart of the former Customs Service. The later mission (pursuing lost tariff and tax revenue)will prevail and the country's national security will suffer. Legacy Customs Agents look down their noses at Immigration work. Period. Nothing will change except that less resources and attention will be paid to our security. GovExec.com reader Posted April 21, 2005 2:10 AM
• Now that CBP has apparently permitted entry to persons in possession of stolen passports, the report calls for ICE to "take action". In the DHS reorganization, CBP appears to have become one of the best funded, staffed & most technologically advanced entities in the department. Will someone please elaborate on what went wrong here? So, how shall ICE accomplish this mandate? Congress so underfunded ICE that, while agents are retiring in droves, trainees are being sent home from training for lack of money; SAC offices do not have sufficient funds to pay for mission critical expenditures such as travel, equipment or GOV maintenance, or to even detain all illegal aliens encountered; accounting systems are so outdated & monies so unaccounted for that ICE is the continual focal point for negative reporting from the GAO & IG offices. It seems painfully clear we are headed for the self-fulfilling prophecy warned about by ICE agents since its inception in March 2003: It was a bad idea to separate agents from the uniformed division, as it would lead to a lack of a coordination in combatting border-related security threats. This now pits CBP & ICE against each other as the one who, according to the IG, messed up, & the one who has to clean up, instead of creating a close, symbiotic relationship like one that legacy agents & inspectors enjoyed before DHS' creation. Should one of these individuals with a stolen passport perpetrate 9/11, Act II, the FBI will cite CBP and ICE as the proximate cause for DHS' failure to protect America from another terrorist attack. This is interesting since the FBI had a voice in creating DHS (and a voice in its policy making ever since (remember the name change scandal?)), but wanted no part in being a stakeholder in the final product. That's akin to an aerospace engineer who designs a spacecraft, but would hesitate to fly on it at an astronaut's expense. In conclusion, since the FBI desires all investigative jurisdiction anyway, may it be suggested that they join their fellow Special Agents in DHS in this proposed round-up with their ever-increasing financial and human resources: one administrative arrest and a trip to their local immigration detention facility may frustrate them sufficiently enough to more fully appreciate what ICE has been doing for almost the last 2 years without sufficient manpower or budget resources. GovExec.com reader Posted December 28, 2004 1:23 PM
• Part of the problem started early this year when CBP (Legacy Customs Inspectors) were given a CD ROM and a couple of hours of training on Fraudulent Passports and then were re-assigned from Customs to INS primary (at airports the uniformed guy at the desk) to have essentially less than one minute with incoming visitors to determine if they have fake documents. While this person (Legacy Customs) is experienced in finding contraband in containers and suitcases he or she is not that experienced or trained in catching fake passports. So when our nation is the most vulnerable to terrorist attacks we are standing by watching and waiting for one of mistakes to cost us big time. This is a typical blunder made by Department of Homeland Security managers that go to congress saying that we are properly trained to do the "cross-trained" duties (Legacy INS doing Legacy Customs duties and Legacy Customs doing Legacy INS duties). The level of training I received as a Special Agent at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center to do my job with Legacy US Customs made me an expert and a valuable asset to the US Government. The Immigration cross-training I received in the field that lasted six days and ended with an open-book test was a real American tragedy. Because now I enforce our nations Immigration law with sub-par training that WILL lead me to make mistakes. I don’t have the power to make changes because I am not the Chief I am an Indian. By pretty soon this Indian is going to leave if serious changes are not made to make us safer. Budget problems and morale problems that hinder speedy learning and adaptation are being stalled because of the illogical splitting up of the Special Agent to ICE, and the Uniformed Officers to CBP. These days... we can't afford to make a mistake in the war on terror Mr. Bush and Mr. Congress! GovExec.com reader Posted December 23, 2004 7:27 PM