IDENT/IAFIS: The Batres Case and the Status of the Integration Project (Cont)
El Paso Border Patrol Records Check Policy
On August 16, 2001, the El Paso Sector Border Patrol sent via e-mail to all sector employees a policy memorandum regarding updates to the IDENT lookout database. The memorandum stated that the USMS had entered into the IDENT lookout database approximately 7,600 sets of fingerprints of alien fugitives with outstanding warrants it had taken from its Warrant Information Network (USMS-WIN) database. The memorandum stated that all of these warrants were for serious felonies listed in NCIC.
The memorandum provided instructions to Border Patrol agents who encountered in IDENT a "lookout" message stating, "Subject may be a United States Marshals Service (USMS) Fugitive. Check FBI number in NCIC for current warrants." The Border Patrol memorandum instructed agents that if they encountered such a lookout they should: (1) confirm the individual's identity by immediately submitting all of the alien's ten fingerprints to the INS WIN/AFIS Center; (2) once WIN/AFIS verified the lookout hit, use the individual's FBI number to query NCIC for "wants and warrants" for the alien;17 (3) notify the USMS of the apprehension and warrant number via telephone or through NLETS;18 (4) document appropriately the transfer of the alien to the USMS; and (5) follow the Border Patrol procedures relating to the creation of A-Files and the retention or forwarding of all documentation relating to these cases.
On December 14, 2001, the El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent issued another memorandum entitled "Alien Fugitives in IDENT" to all Sector Border Patrol Agents in Charge and Unit Supervisors. This memorandum stated:
If an agent processes an individual through IDENT and gets a "lookout" candidate from any of the law enforcement agencies registered with WIN AFIS, the Agent will receive a call from WIN AFIS. At the time of notification, the "hit" will be brought to the attention of a supervisor. The supervisor will make the appropriate contact with the agency requesting the detention for resolution and/or disposition of the suspect being detained.
A supervisory Border Patrol agent at the Santa Teresa, New Mexico Border Patrol office told the OIG that the December 14, 2001, memorandum from the El Paso Chief Patrol Agent was placed on the "muster board" in that station and was still there at the time of Batres' apprehensions in January 2002. A Patrol Agent in Charge stated that the memorandum had been discussed at shift briefings. We found no evidence that the memorandum was distributed individually to agents.
First Apprehension of Batres - January 18, 2002
At approximately 4:30 a.m. on January 18, 2002, a Border Patrol agent apprehended a group of four illegal aliens near Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The agent transported the aliens to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station for processing. At the station, the agent entered each of the aliens into IDENT. At approximately 5:00 a.m., when the agent processed the fingerprints of an alien who identified himself as Maximiliano Silerio-Esparza, the IDENT apprehension database did not indicate any prior illegal entries for the alien, but the IDENT lookout database provided a "red-line" hit for a wanted alien named Victor M. Batres-Martinez.19
The agent told the OIG that he had not received the memoranda described above detailing the process for handling IDENT lookouts for wanted aliens. He said, however, that he handled this situation based on his knowledge of the El Paso Sector Border Patrol policy, which he said had been explained to him in an oral briefing by a Border Patrol shift supervisor in December 2001. The agent said that, based on this briefing, his understanding was that when he received a lookout for an alien in IDENT, WIN/AFIS personnel would compare the fingerprints of the detainee against those of the wanted fugitive, and the agent was supposed to await a telephone call from WIN/AFIS for confirmation of the match.
WIN/AFIS personnel confirmed the agent's understanding of this policy. They explained that in the case of a lookout entered from NCIC, the WIN/AFIS Center is notified of the hit automatically (at the time that the alien is being processed in IDENT) via a digital pager. WIN/AFIS personnel then were required to confirm or deny the match and to contact the Border Patrol station where the alien's fingerprints were entered into IDENT to advise of the confirmation or denial of the match and provide information about the match. This contact is expected to occur within an hour of the hit. As a courtesy, WIN/AFIS personnel also routinely send the processing Border Patrol station a facsimile that includes the alien's NCIC criminal history printout, warrant information, and a WIN/AFIS worksheet.
The agent who processed Batres and received the lookout hit in IDENT said that, when he received the hit, the IDENT "fingerprint score" (which rates the strength of a fingerprint match) that appeared on the IDENT screen was insignificant to him. He said he had not yet received any training as to the meaning of this score.20 Further, there was no available photograph in IDENT to compare the lookout to Batres. The agent said he manually compared Batres' fingerprints to the fingerprints provided with the lookout. The agent conducted his comparison on a 17-inch computer monitor, which showed the two sets of prints side by side, one from the lookout and one from Batres, whose prints he had just entered into IDENT. The agent explained that he counted the lines from the delta to the center of the left index finger on both sets of prints. He conducted this count twice and both times found a difference of one line between the prints. He therefore thought that it was not a match, and at approximately 5:10 a.m. he rejected the match in IDENT.
The agent said that because he was not completely comfortable with rejecting the lookout hit based on his fingerprint comparison alone, he took the additional step of interviewing Batres. The agent stated that during the interview, Batres was cooperative and exhibited no signs of deception. Batres did not acknowledge being the person wanted in Oregon, although the agent said he did not press him on this issue. The agent told the OIG that based on the totality of the circumstances - the absence of a return call from WIN/AFIS, the agent's personal comparison of the fingerprints, and Batres' cooperative demeanor during questioning - he did not believe that Batres was the person in the lookout, and he therefore processed Batres for a voluntary return to Mexico.21
The agent finished processing the entire group of aliens at about 5:30 a.m. and locked them in the holding cell at the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station. The agent said that at approximately 6:30 a.m., he encountered a supervisory Border Patrol agent who was beginning his shift. The agent explained to the supervisor that Batres had a lookout hit, but that there was no positive identification from WIN/AFIS, and the agent therefore did not think that Batres was the person in the lookout. The agent said that the supervisory agent did not question this conclusion.
The supervisory Border Patrol agent acknowledged having a conversation in which the agent told him that he had apprehended four aliens and that two had returned red-line hits in IDENT. He said that the agent informed him that one of the hits had a low matching fingerprint score and no picture, the other hit had high scores and no picture, and that the prints did not appear to match in either case. The supervisor said that this information was insufficient to lead him to believe that "either of these aliens would fall under the directive concerning WIN/AFIS aliens." He stated that he believed that there was "no problem," and that another supervisor who was working with the agent during his shift would have "taken care of anything that might have turned up in accordance with the procedures." In fact, this was the only supervisor whom the agent informed of the hit regarding Batres.
At approximately 8:00 a.m., an INS Detention Officer picked up the group of aliens, including Batres, and transported them to the Paso del Norte processing station, where they were voluntarily returned to Mexico.
(cont) |
