Border Agents Let Fake IDs Go Through

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060801/D8J7TS080.html

Border Agents Let Fake IDs Go Through
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Aug 1, 7:03 PM (ET)

By LARA JAKES JORDAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.


Traffic lines up on the Rainbow Bridge plaza for entry into the United States from Niagara Falls, Ontario, in Niagara Falls, N.Y., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005. Undercover investigators entered the U.S. using fake documents repeatedly this year, according to Government Accountability Office testimony. (AP Photo/Don Heupel, FILE)


The findings, to be presented to the Senate Finance Committee, come as Congress considers delaying a 2007 deadline requiring passports or a small number of previously approved tamperproof ID cards from all who enter the United States.

Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said agents are trained to identify false birth certificates, driver's licenses and other documents. But he conceded that agents sometimes cannot verify more than 8,000 different kinds of currently acceptable IDs without significantly slowing border traffic.

"This creates a security vulnerability we were hoping to close" with the deadline at the end of next year, Agen said.

[Robb]

1. Sorta reminds me of the Department of Transportation

You can have it good, or you can keep traffic flowing.

Mountain pass near here had two vehicles go off the un-railed edge last winter. Through almost unimaginable means, passengers in both vehicles survived several hundred feet of plunge.

Overheard on-scene at second accident: "So, think they're gonna put a guard rail up here now?" ... "Why would they? Nobody died, did they?"

[Agnomen]

2. The bartender spotted fake i.d.'s right off.

They should only hire former bartenders at border crossings.

[williesgirl]

3. But they do have time to listen to our calls, read our emails etc

[Sven77]

4. give up our rights

but the border stays wide open.