GAO Report on Border Security

The GAO has issued a report with the not so catchy title, "BORDER SECURITY:Summary of Covert Tests and Security Assessments for the Senate Committee on Finance, 2003–2007."

From January 2003 to September 2007, GAO testified before the Committee on three occasions to describe security vulnerabilities that terrorists could exploit to enter the country. GAO’s first two testimonies focused on covert testing at ports of entry—the air, sea, and land locations where international travelers can legally enter the United States. In its third testimony, GAO focused on limited security assessments of unmanned and unmonitored border areas between land ports of entry.

GAO was asked to summarize the results of covert testing and assessment work for these three testimonies. This report discusses the results of testing at land, sea, and air ports of entry; however, the majority of GAO’s work was focused on land ports of entry. The unmanned and unmonitored border areas GAO assessed were defined as locations where the government does not maintain a manned presence 24 hours per day or where there was no apparent monitoring equipment in place. GAO assessed a nonrepresentative selection of these locations and did not attempt to evaluate all potential U.S. border security vulnerabilities. Further, GAO’s work was limited in scope and cannot be projected to represent systemic weaknesses.

In response to this report, DHS provided a written update on numerous border protection efforts it has taken to enhance border security since 2003. GAO did not attempt to verify the information provided by DHS, but has included the response in this report.

GAO investigators identified numerous border security vulnerabilities, both at ports of entry and at unmanned and unmonitored land border locations between the ports of entry. In testing ports of entry, undercover investigators carried counterfeit drivers’ licenses, birth certificates, employee identification cards, and other documents, presented themselves at ports of entry and sought admittance to the United States dozens of times. They arrived in rental cars, on foot, by boat, and by airplane. They attempted to enter in four states on the northern border (Washington, New York, Michigan, and Idaho), three states on the southern border (California, Arizona, and Texas), and two other states requiring international air travel (Florida and Virginia). In nearly every case, government inspectors accepted oral assertions and counterfeit identification provided by GAO investigators as proof of U.S. citizenship and allowed them to enter the country. In total, undercover investigators made 42 crossings with a 93 percent success rate. On several occasions, while entering by foot from Mexico and by boat from Canada, investigators were not even asked to show identification. For example, at one border crossing in Texas in 2006, an undercover investigator attempted to show a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer his counterfeit driver’s license, but the officer said, “That’s fine, you can go” without looking at it. As a result of these tests, GAO concluded that terrorists could use counterfeit identification to pass through most of the tested ports of entry with little chance of being detected.

In its most recent work, GAO shifted its focus from ports of entry and primarily performed limited security assessments of unmanned and unmonitored areas between ports of entry. The names of the states GAO visited for this limited security assessment have been withheld at the request of CBP. In four states along the U.S.–Canada border, GAO found state roads that were very close to the border that CBP did not appear to monitor. In three states, the proximity of the road to the border allowed investigators to cross undetected, successfully simulating the cross-border movement of radioactive materials or other contraband into the United States from Canada. For example, in one apparently unmanned, unmonitored area on the northern border, the U.S. Border Patrol was alerted to GAO’s activities through the tip of an alert citizen. However, the responding U.S. Border Patrol agents were not able to locate the investigators and their simulated contraband. Also on the northern border, GAO investigators located several ports of entry in one state on the northern border that had posted daytime hours and were unmanned overnight. Investigators observed that surveillance equipment was in operation, but that the only preventive measure to stop an individual from crossing the border into the United States was a barrier across the road that could be driven around. GAO also identified potential security vulnerabilities on federally managed lands adjacent to the U.S.–Mexico border. GAO concluded that CBP faces significant challenges on the northern border, and that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the United States by crossing the U.S.–Canada border at any of the assessed locations.

Mike Cutlers comment:

I have attached a copy of the summary (highlights) of that report and a link to the report, in its entirety below.

I don't know how many times I have made this statement, but given the dire nature of the multitude of threats confronting the United States today it is absolutely outrageous to think that as we approach the 7th anniversary of the most horrific precisely coordinated terrorist attacks ever carried out on our soil on September 11, 2001 that our nation's borders are not secure. That the immigration bureaucracy that the 911 Commission showed to have played a major role in the entry of terrorists into our country and their ability to embed themselves in various communities around our country, enabling them to hide in plain sight among us, is still not being addressed even on the most rudimentary and minimal level! Our nation joined the other Allied nations during the Second World War and defeated the Axis nations in under 4 years!

President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to achieve greatness and established the landing of American astronauts on the moon as the goal for our nation and our nation attained that objective within the time frame set by President Kennedy. No other nation has yet been able to do what we did nearly 4 decades ago!

Today, the building of a fence on our border and tracking the arrival and departure of aliens who visit our nation as non-immigrants appear to be goals that are beyond the grasp of our nation that still calls itself a "Super Power!" If we are indeed a "Super Power" will someone please get rid of the Kryptonite that is hobbling our nation!

Our borders represent little more than a speed bump to the alien smugglers, criminals and potentially terrorists and their supporters who manage to enter our country each and every day. Those borders fail to stop the smuggling of narcotics into our country by drug cartels that then use their massive ill-gotten proceeds to buy weapons, conveyances including cars, trucks, boats. submersibles and airplanes, and even corrupt politicians, law enforcement officials and military officials in their home countries. Violent gang members easily cross our nation's borders to swell their numbers of members and further their criminal objectives in our country. Often members of gangs such as MS-13 work at low-level jobs during the day, bagging groceries at supermarkets and mowing lawns and then, joining with members of that pernicious gang at night, engage in gang-activities including crimes of extreme violence.

The ability of massive numbers of illegal aliens to enter our country also drives down wages, eliminates the prospect of entry level jobs for America's teenagers and those who want to escape the poverty of America's inner cities and other poverty-stricken communities and join mainstream economic America.

We hear so much about the "rights" of illegal aliens, indeed, the "war cry" of the illegal aliens, "Yes we can" has been picked up by the apparent Democratic candidate for the Presidency, Barack Obama who often repeats that phrase along with his audiences wherever he speaks. A day or two ago, Al Gore joined Senator Obama on stage and his first words were, "Yes we can!"

I have been a lifelong Democrat so I am not being political when I ask, where has the Democratic Party gone? Why have they turned their back on blue collar America? Why have they turned their back on the America's minorities, taking up the cause of illegal aliens and ignoring the plight of our own citizens in our country?

While senators such as Chuck Schumer often hold news conferences at seaports and demand to know why only about 5% of the cargo containers are being inspected for potential weapons of mass destruction, just about none of those politicians are willing to address our porous borders! Is it somehow more important to stop a ship-borne cargo container that contains contraband or a weapon of mass destruction than an 18 wheeler barreling across our nation's roads and across numerous states carrying a weapon of mass destruction. Perhaps spewing pathogens or toxins into the environment? (I know of no such threat being discussed, but shouldn't all possibilities be considered?)

One of the most disturbing sentences in the report is as follows:

"GAO’s work was limited in scope and cannot be projected to represent systemic weaknesses."

What I want to know is what the hell does that statement mean and why was it inserted into the summary?

No manufacturing company examines each and every widget that they manufacture by subjecting it to failure testing. They perform such tests on a random sampling that is supposed to be representative of the production run. If enough widgets fail, then it is presumed that there is a critical problem with the manufacturing process.

In reading the glaring failures at the ports of entry and areas between ports of entry that were uncovered by the GAO it is obvious we are standing in the middle of quicksand. If the GAO does not believe that their research can lead to a general sense of how secure we are, why did they do this investigation and report on it at all?

I am sick of the waffling that goes on in our government. I am disgusted with the fuzzy language and fuzzy reasoning where the security of our nation and our citizens are concerned!

You cannot solve a problem until you identify the problem.

I believe the report makes it absolutely clear that our nation faces a clear and present danger from the very agencies that We the People pay to protect us!

I have heard it said that "Work fill the available amount of time."

How much more time will it take for our government to act to protect our borders and create a secure immigration system? When will either candidate for the Presidency deal with these critical issues?

We the People have our work cut out for us! Irrespective of political affiliation we must demand our representative government finally represent us!

Border security is not a Conservative nor is it a Liberal issue. Border security is an AMERICAN issue!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

-michael cutler-

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