Exclusive: Speedier Inspections Make for Lax Security


Author: Mike Cutler

Date Published: 2007-09-11


 

Faster inspections at the border may improve the bottom line for commerce and trade, but it puts a definite cramp in our safety. FSM Contributing Editor Michael Cutler declares the solution is not to speed the process up, but to increase inspection time in the name of national security.

 

Speedier Inspections Make for Lax Security

 

By Michael Cutler

 

This Washington Times article should make it clear that our government considers the mission of the CBP inspectors an irritating "speed bump" to the goal of commerce and trade. Admittedly no one likes to wait on a long line, but the solution is not to truncate the process to the point where it becomes virtually meaningless – especially as our nation just noted the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The solution is to hire more inspectors and do whatever has to be done to increase the inspections facility at those ports of entry that have large numbers of vehicles and pedestrians entering the United States.

 

The issue of speeding the inspections process is reminiscent of my own experience as an immigration inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Even back in the early 1970s, we were told to take no more than one minute to admit a passenger. I also recall that we were chastised if we sent too many arriving aliens to "secondary" for a more thorough inspection. We were told that it might be better to simply limit an arriving foreign passenger to a couple of weeks in the United States rather then to send that questionable passenger to “secondary.” Of course this was long before our nation was engaged in a "War on Terror," but it nevertheless was a flawed way for us to do our jobs. As I noted to my bosses at the time, all that those arriving passengers who were of concern to us really wanted was a couple of minutes on the other side of the doors that separated the inspections area from the rest of the terminal – so that they could get a running head start!   

 

In this day and age, this mindset represents a threat to national security.

 

There have also been numerous reports on the way that USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) approves applications for immigration benefits. These reports make it clear that the objective is to move the applications even at the expense of screening for fraud. Last year, that troubled agency claimed to have "lost" more than 110,000 alien immigration files that related to aliens seeking a wide variety of benefits, including the conferring of resident alien status and even United States citizenship. The report issued by the GAO stated that some 30,000 applications for United States citizenship were among those processed, even though USCIS claimed to have not had access to the relating files! 

 

Interestingly, while we have seen politicians make lots of noise about the need to inspect cargo containers, few of them have had the political courage to make their concerns known (presuming they have concerns) about the way that the immigration laws are enforced. This includes the way the inspections process, or the adjudications process, is being conducted.

 

“We the People” need to know precisely the positions of our elected representatives. It has been six years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Do you know where your political representatives stand on these issues?

 

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

 

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

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FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.

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