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Joe Lieberman, an Independent, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee
U.S. authorities are facing a huge backlog of records involving people who have stayed in the United States after their visas expired, according to a report released on Tuesday, revealing that a security gap has not been fixed since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The Department of Homeland Security’s US-VISIT system had a backlog of some 1.6 million records of potential visa overstays as of January 2011, said the report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.
Five of the 19 men who hijacked the planes in the September 11 attacks had overstayed their visas and the report found that some 36 of the 400 people who have been convicted on terrorism-related charges since 2001 had also stayed after their visas expired.
“It is simply unacceptable that we are still unable to systematically identify people who overstay — some of whom may be terrorists waiting to attack innocent Americans,” Joe Lieberman, an Independent who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.
Some of the records may include duplicates because of computer system changes, may not have been reviewed yet, or include cases that are not necessarily considered to be a priority, the GAO report said.
As a matter of policy, records involving visa overstays of 90 days or less or those who are not deemed to pose a national security or public safety risk do not trigger an immediate lookout warning, according to the report.
The report was released a day before Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is due to testify on border security before Lieberman’s committee.
At least 17 social media sites are monitored by the Department of Homeland Security
The Department of Homeland Security used social networking to determine whether applicants for citizenship are guilty of entering into “green card marriages.“
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation show immigration agents were instructed on how to “friend” applicants for citizenship on social networks such as Facebook in order to observe their lives and determine if their marriages are in fact valid. (more…)
Pro-Latino organizations rallied on Wednesday in protest of the strict Arizona's immigration law. Reuters.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Deputy Press Secretary Matt Chandler issued the following statement July 28 in response to a federal judge’s decision on the SB1070 immigration enforcement law in Arizona:
“The court’s decision to enjoin most of SB1070 correctly affirms the federal government’s responsibilities in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. Over the past eighteen months, this Administration has dedicated unprecedented resources to secure the border, and we will continue to work to take decisive action to disrupt criminal organizations and the networks they exploit. (more…)
A group of allegedly illegal immigrants try to enter the U.S. by train. AFP
An unknown group in the state of Utah that calls itself “Concerned Citizens of the United States” has developed and distributed to various government agencies and to the media a “wacthlist” with 1300 names, apparently of Latino illegal immigrants living in that state.
The list contains the full names of 1,300 people, dates of birth, residence addresses, social security numbers, number of children and date of delivery of pregnant women on the list.
(more…)
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