Fingerprint database still a problem
Three years after 9/11, US agency infighting still foils unified effort.
In a blunt assessment of efforts by US federal agencies to create a unified fingerprint database, the
Associated Press reported that Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report Wednesday that said agency infighting had
undermined this effort. The agencies "have different sets of mission objectives, and each one has been a forceful advocate for its respective position," said Justice Department top administrative official Paul Corts.
The result, Mr. Fine added, is that most visitors to the US are not being fully screened for criminal or terrorist ties. The result is, Fine adds, that this agency infighting, "creates a risk that a terrorist could enter the country undetected."
Wednesday's report is the fourth time since 9/11 that Mr. Fine has criticized efforts of the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department to create a unified system that will effectively track the 118,000 visitors that daily enter the US. Current plans by the DHS call for the checking of
one percent of this figure against the FBI's fingerprint database. Yet
Reuters reports that by the end of 2005 about 800 will actually be checked.
The inspector general said the partial data is prone to have errors or omissions. "Further, the fingerprint file of 'known or suspected terrorists' is only transmitted to the (Department of Homeland Security) once a month," Fine's report said. "Consequently, criminals or terrorists could be missed by checks against the extracted records." The inspector general said "high-level policy decisions" must be made in a "timely way" to overcome the discrepancies between the departments.
The New York Times reports that the "core of the problem" is that the FBI, DHS, and the State Department disagree on
how many fingers should be used to take the prints. The FBI has used 10 prints for years, but the DHS and the State Department favor only two, and said so in letters attached to Fine's report. The latter two federal agencies believe that moving to a ten fingerprint model would be too expensive and time-consuming.
Janice L. Jacobs, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for visa services, said in her letter to Mr. Fine that it took as much as a minute longer to take 10 prints in a test program of visa applicants at the United States consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. "Adding one minute of processing time to 7,000,000 visa applications annually has significant workload implications," she wrote.
Government Computer News reports that Fine made several recommendations to improve the system:
- Setting a 90-day deadline for adoption of common technology standards
- Weekly instead of monthly transmission of prints of known or suspected terrorists from the FBI to DHS
- Randomly sampling US-VISIT [the new border crossing check system] and other biometric databases for comparison against IAFIS [the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System] records
- Improving IAFIS' capacity, standards compliance, and uptime.
GovExec.com reports that Fine has also taken these federal agencies to task in the past for their reluctance to share information with each other. In June of 2003 Fine criticized the FBI and the INS for "
poor information sharing among agencies and an inefficient process" that led to the "mistreatment of some foreigners detained after the Sept. 11 attacks."
The
Associated Press reported earlier this week that
12 border crossings between the US and Mexico have begun to use the US-VISIT program, which includes checking fingerprints of some visitors, while
some 50 crossings between Canada and the US will feature the system (although the Canada-US border checkpoints will only check those visitors to the US who are not Canadians).
The new system has already generated some controversy. In one incident that happened earlier this week, American Muslim officials angrily accused border officials of singling out members of a group that had gone to Toronto for an
Islamic conference.
IslamOnline.net reports that "US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials
held up to 40 American Muslims at the Lewiston Bridge border crossing near Niagara Falls for questioning and fingerprinting on Sunday night and Monday morning."
"The image of a room full of American Muslim citizens apparently being held solely because of their faith and the fact that they attended an Islamic conference is one that should be disturbing to all Americans who value religious freedom," said Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Nihad Awad.
The Department of Justice Inspector General's report comes only a few days after another report critical of security measures at US border crossings.
GovExec.com reported last week that Richard Skinner, acting inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, wrote that "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."
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