Fabiola Ochoa holds up
her new Laser Visa Crossing Card
at the US Port of Entry
in Nogales, Ariz., on Tuesday.
Posted on 10/02/2002 5:39:06 PM PDT by madfly
NOGALES - Despite new requirements that Mexicans carry new high-tech border-crossing cards to make short visits to the United States, federal authorities do not have enough machines in place at U.S. border checkpoints to read the encoded information encrypted on the cards.
The computer equipment at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexican border also are still unable to read biometric information - digital photographs and fingerprints - that appear embedded in the card, Marie Sebrechts, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman, said Tuesday. She said it does scan the information and matches the name of the cardholder against a national criminal database.
"Even though these laser visas have biometrics, which consists of a photo of the person and a fingerprint, we are not using that part of the laser visa at the Mexican border right now," Sebrechts said. "Machine-reading them automatically checks them against the database, so the security check is already going on."
The INS' inability to get the card-reading technology in place in time has drawn criticism from members of Congress, including Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.
"The INS has had many years to prepare for the transition to the laser cards," Kolbe said. "We continue to express our sense of urgency with the INS to put the appropriate technology into place, so that full range of security benefits of the card can be utilized."
Congress approved the new cards in 1996 as part of an effort to combat document fraud and to replace the old border-crossing card, which had limited information. The State Department has issued more than 5 million cards since 1998.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the new cards have been viewed as a key part of the federal government's strategy to track the entry and exit of foreign visitors.
Tuesday was supposed to be the deadline for Mexican nationals to replace their old border-crossing cards with the new high-tech ones. The cards allow certain Mexicans living along the border to visit the United States for up to 72 hours without a visa.
But immigration inspectors on Tuesday were unable to scan the cards of people passing though the ports of entry in cars or trucks because vehicle lanes were not equipped with machines that could read the new cards. Those who came on foot faced more scrutiny because INS inspectors screening pedestrians had the proper machines in place.
"We haven't developed (a computer program) that works with the system (in the vehicle lanes)," said Gary L. Rehbein, INS deputy area port director in Nogales.
At the bustling downtown Nogales port, INS inspectors processed about 3,200 vehicles in eight hours on Tuesday morning. They did not have the numbers broken down beyond that.
Anthony van Ravenswaay, assistant port director for U.S. customs at the Nogales port of entry, said the most recent figures show that more pedestrians than cars cross into the United States through Nogales. According to figures from Oct. 1, 2001 through this past May, there were 2,634,462 cars that crossed and 3,197,483 pedestrians, he said.
INS officials said the new border-crossing cards eventually will speed up screening at border checkpoints.
"In the past, the inspectors at the port would have to actually hand input the name and birth date . . . in order to cross-check people," said Sebrechts, the INS spokeswoman. "With the laser visas, they can now process 10 people in the time it took to process one person before."
The new cards also are designed to reduce the black market for fraudulent documents. INS inspectors last year reported collecting more than 30,000 fake cards, about one-fourth of all confiscated documents.
"The old cards had very few security points . . . and could be counterfeited like crazy," Rehbein said. "And they were counterfeited like crazy."
Republic reporter Hernan Rozemberg contributed to this article.
What about an inter-national criminal base?
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