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Return to Article: Watchdog: Homeland Security behind schedule on foreign visitor tracking component

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  Brian, for the record, Customs was doing a pretty good job prior to 9/11 with the resources it had. The fact that street drugs were available had more to do with supply and demand, and the fact that Americans weren't willing to put up with the expense and inconvenience to business and travel to truly fight the "War on Drugs" in any meaningful way. And yes, you're correct that "Customs has no idea on how to fix any Legacy INS problems". Neither could Legacy INS, which is why those problems were transferred along to CBP and ICE as well. Legacy Customs employees neither asked for nor wanted this foolish merger any more than Legacy INS employees did. It was thrust upon all of us, against our wishes and our better judgment, by politicians who had no clue as to what they were doing. Your anger and resentment would more appropriately be directed at those who are truly responsible for this fiasco, instead of those who were caught up in it, through no fault of their own.

  ICEman Posted April 17, 2008 8:19 PM
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  To clarify a little here, US-VISIT is not part of CBP and in fact is not part of ICE either. It is in NPDD, strange as that seems. However, most of the senior management is ex-INS. There is almost nobody currently in US-VIST senior management that came out of CBP. Also, the law currently forbids US citizens to be part of this system. As far as aliens and their status goes, one of the seldom mentioned systems in this program, ADIS, actually does a better job at identity matching and maintaining the status since it integrates both biometric identifier and biographic data from border crossings, entry and exit, along immigration admission updates, to determine the status. Exit is very thorny because there is no law enforcement officer involved in the outprocessing in a secure area near the gate. This is a major difference between exit and entry, and the core of much of the problem.

  Lee Schoff Posted April 7, 2008 4:24 PM
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  Brian 15% is good enough for government work!!! I'm impressed

  Dan ketter Posted April 7, 2008 11:17 AM
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  One issue that will continue to confuse and befuddle the program is the concept of automatic revallidation (Auto reval). It has been suggested that Auto reval be layed to rest but it's days may be numbered. In addition, CIS and CBP and esspecially the Immigration court system should be better able to coordinate EOS,COS and bring back the old "Under Docket Controll" I-94 issues to insure that an individual does not have more than one status at a time until they leave or become LPR or USC uppon admission.

  WEB Posted April 7, 2008 10:30 AM
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  Is there anything to stop them from applying this new tracking system to US citizens? "The program uses a strategic approach comprised of two parts: the unique identity component, which uses fingerprints, photos and other biometric information to track all individuals who interact with immigration or Border Patrol; and the exit component, which tracks the air departures of all foreign visitors from the United States."

  Alfred Molison Posted April 2, 2008 1:24 PM
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  INS was also required to have a tracking system in place in accordance with IRA-IRA 1996. If INS cound not do it why would anyone think that US Customs, now CBP could figure it out! Prior to 911 Customs had twice the budget, to include twice the personnel. Yet if you check with your local law enforcement agencies most street drugs were cheaper in 2001 then 1982. Lets face that facts, Customs has no idea on how to fix any Legacy INS problems. They could not even put a dent in the war on drugs. I beleive their stats says they only found about 15 percent of the drugs entering the US. What a great track record, now their incharge of everything.

  Brian Posted April 2, 2008 1:09 AM