Security on borders still lax, agents say
Julia Malone - Staff
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Washington --- U.S. Border Patrol agents testified Tuesday that, despite promises of tighter security, enforcement of immigration laws has been lax since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Many illegal immigrants caught sneaking across the border are routinely released into the community with no more than a request that they show up for deportation hearings later, agents said.
"This dangerous practice continues today," said Mark Hall, a senior Border Patrol agent from Detroit. Hall told a congressional investigative panel that the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which oversees the borders, lacks the detention space to hold many of those who evade legal ports of entry. Most of those released "vanish" into the population, Hall said.
Another Border Patrol agent, Keith M. Olson of Bellingham, Wash., said promised help along the border with Canada has yet to arrive.
Before Sept. 11, only 324 agents patrolled the 4,000-mile northern border, Olson said. "To this day, that number has not increased."
One hundred reinforcements have been sent to ports of entry, Olson said, but none to the vast expanse of the border, where there is still only one agent for every 13 miles. In contrast, he said the U.S.-Mexico border has a Border Patrol agent for every 1,300 feet.
''If you were a terrorist, where would you take your chances?'' Olson asked.
Hall and Olson said the agency does not require criminal background checks before releasing those who cross the border illegally.
"These are people arrested by the Border Patrol for illegally entering the country," said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). "We don't even run a criminal background check? I find that incredible."
Michael A. Pearson, executive associate INS commissioner, said the checks are not required, and he defended the release policy. "I wouldn't say that they're automatically a flight risk," he said, adding that computerized federal lists of suspected terrorists and criminals are not readily available to the INS.
He said he could not predict when that data will be consolidated and made accessible.
Even so, Pearson defended the policy of releasing some of the illegal border crossers. ''I wouldn't say that they're automatically a flight risk,'' Pearson said. When pressed to say how many fail to show up for their deportation hearings, he said the INS does not have the number.
Levin said the committee had been told by law enforcement sources that the no-show percentage was close to 85 percent.
Levin also said his committee was concerned about possible retaliation against Hall, who has been subjected to disciplinary action after giving interviews about security lapses on the borders.
Pearson, who said he was aware of the complaint against Hall but declined to give details of the case, said, ''I'm very much involved in protecting whistle-blowers.''
Hall ''was concerned with the northern border,'' Pearson said. ''He was right in that.''
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