Scanners catch no terrorists, many criminals
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - Fingerprint scanners deployed on the U.S.-Mexican border
to detect terrorism suspects have caught not would-be bombers but thousands of
other criminals, including murderers, kidnappers and sex offenders.
Border Patrol agents have snared 33,000 criminals - most of them along the
2,000-mile border with Mexico - since the digital fingerprinting system linking
immigration and FBI databases went live nationwide in early September.
"It has not only enhanced their ability to detect immigration offenses but also
to apprehend suspects wanted for serious crimes such as homicide, kidnapping
and sex offenses," spokesman Mario Villarreal of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and
Border Protection said in a telephone interview.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began cross-referencing the FBI's
Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, to help
secure the United States from terrorist attack.
The U.S.-Mexico border was widely seen as a soft spot in U.S. security after
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Border policing was tightened with extra agents
and new technology, but so far officials have not announced the capture of a
single terror suspect.
100 homicide suspects
Officials say the technology has allowed the Border Patrol to catch more than
100 homicide suspects and more than 200 sex offenders in the last four months,
singled out from more than 200,000 undocumented migrants detained during the
period.
Rank-and-file Border Patrol agents like the technology, which is used at border
crossings and by agents who pick up illegal migrants in the desert.
"You have a guy who looks like a harmless grandfather, but lo and behold, when
you run his prints through IAFIS it turns out that he's a three-times-convicted
child molester from Fresno," said Steve McPartland, a Border Patrol spokesman
in San Diego, Calif.
"It's the best thing that's happened to us, as it's closed a loophole that in
the past allowed potential criminal aliens to be released from our custody," he
added.
Identifying offenders
Border Patrol agents now scan all 10 fingers of each of the thousands of adult
illegal migrants picked up crossing the U.S. border each day, whether entering
from Canada, Mexico or in certain coastal areas.
Previously, agents ran just two prints through the immigration service's
biometric system. Now the complete set of prints is simultaneously
cross-matched against an FBI database.
Most of the 33,000 criminals caught so far are former felons who have served
sentences for minor crimes but commit a new felony by trying to sneak back into
the United States.
Felons identified by the system are handed over to federal authorities, if it
is a serious crime, or are passed on to police in the state where an
outstanding warrant was issued.
In Arizona, with routes used by more than 40 percent of illegal migrants
crossing the U.S. border, agents say the system has proved so successful that
some criminals have taken to mutilating their fingertips to avoid
identification.
"We occasionally apprehend aliens who have used sandpaper to file off their
fingerprints, or have covered their fingertips in glue in an attempt to avoid
recognition," Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman Charles Griffin said.
"It really doesn't prevent us from figuring out who they are; it just makes us
even more determined," he said.
.
|
