U.S. Still Lacks Reliable System For Tracking Foreign Visitors On Expired Visas

New York Times:

Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Waltfl]

Like the Patriot and Military Commission Acts, the Bush immigration system was never designed to track visitors or illegal immigrants, it was created to track American citizens, those citizens who could eventually march up Pennsylvania Avenue, and kick the bums out, if matters would get too bad. It's like warrantless wiretapping, it is all about surveillance of US citizens. To wiretap foreign conversations they didn't need a warrant before.

What is new with Bush's multi Billion dollar immigration system? They fingerprint all tourists and end up with huge databases of meaningless fingerprints. Reality is, nobody checks if someone leaves the country, or is here illegally.

On the other hand, Americans had to get microchipped passports, that can be used to track travel plans and every move an American citizen make. Microchipped drivers licenses and ID cards were already planned. Databases for traveling US citizens have been created, complete satellite surveillance of this country (no cancelled by Obama) was already in the make, and was funded by Congress.

I could show you hundreds of illegals here in Florida right now, but who cares? It is not about illegals it is about Americans.

[katielady]

OH, WHAT A SHOCK!!!!!!!!!!!! 35 years ago, when my husband I first married, we needed to 'update' his information and change his status. INS "LOST" HIS PAPERWORK!!! in that neverending bin called, transit! They decided deportation would fix it.. Not good for the children. Took them a calls from our congressman and senators to fix it.. Multiply this by the millions of immigrants.. and you can imagine. Both of my daughters-in-law have been going thru their own situations with INS.. All of us are immigrants.. maybe time to consider the hiring practices of the INS.. maybe a literacy test and an education should be mandatory for anyone working there.

[jqcitizen]

"Mission Accomplished" -GWB

[wonketteRAWKS]

This is disgusting. After 8 years of failed policies assuring Americans that they are on top of things and creating a Homeland Security Department, Bush and his thugs have done crapola. It appears we weren't attcked by sheer luck. What good is fighting those "over there" when we continue to not be safe over here.

Wonder exactly where all that money dedicated to just this kind of safety went!

[Jyoti Naik]

good point

[Jyoti Naik]

90% of immigrants to US and Europe are muslims
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

[Soule23]

Wrong.

[Jyoti Naik]

How do other countries do it? I know that when I lived in the Netherlands, they had a very strict visitor monitoring system. Can't we borrow another countries successful monitoring policy without reinventing the wheel?

[Waltfl]

Visitor monitoring systems are designed to track visitors. That was never the goal of the Bush Administration. They wanted complete surveillance of US citizens, and they almost got it.

[Cowhustler]

And yet,, they can find that one cow with Mad Cow disease, why is this?

[robjh1]

This is very disturbing. We need to know who is here and who isn't. The system really needs to be corrected. People fly here constantly and out stay their welcome. This must end. The world is a different place and we must act accordingly.


"and we are not saved..."

[Moshe]

But we can spend trillions of tax payer dollars on phony boots on the ground wars falsely alleged to "keep us safe" while actually doing exactly the opposite: Inflamming anti-americanism and killing our young men and women unnecessarily.

9/11 has been used as an excuse to get polititians reelected and make the MIC filthy rich, and public safety has never been the real priority.

[royevatom]

I just can't stand this type of reporting, we al know this. We also know that the system for prosecuting the people who are in this country without ligitamate visas etc. is completely overwhelmed. We are holding people in a mulititude of detention centers who are being processed for extentions, asylum, deprortartion, or some other determination. Many of these people have health problems and special needs outside of three meals a day.
We need immigration reform that addresses modern issues and our Government refuses to do it.
Once again our elected officials do not do their job and are not held accountable for it.
It is called Taxation without Representation.

[nomoredead]

Yet we spend a trillion dollars in the ME playing wack the mole when the next 9/11 type attack gang is probably walking around amongst us right now.

Bring our troops home and watch the airports, borders and shipping ports.

[AKJM]

Too easy and too sensible, never happen.

[drjay79]

Tell me again how Bush kept us safe.

[RJII]

yet an US citizen can barely get work here with a bad FICO score. I say let the Equifax and the other credit reporting agencies have at them.

[Tom95134]

This is simple POLICE WORK! Here we are spending billions of dollars fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while our law enforcement agencies are so crippled by their inefficiencies and territorial squabbles that people can overstay visas and be almost guaranteed of not being found out.

INSANITY!

I hope that there is prosecution of the businesses that gave this guy a job. Even when he was here legally, a tourist visa does not allow you to work.

[Soule23]

Prosecute the employers! They'll definitely be able to hire US citizens after the feds are done with them!

[jweider]

But then they get accused of racial profiling if they allow any police work to be done to address the problem because the percentage of English speaking European illegal immigrants is so small.

[PanFx]

Unless one surgically implants a tracking device, no-one will be able to track illegals.