The Iowa senator who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance convened a hearing this morning on the findings of an independent investigation he requested which tested the border and found it was easy to enter the country with false identification and undeclared cash. The investigation included attempts to enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and Jamaica at land, air and sea Ports-of-Entry. It was conducted by the General Accounting Office, an independent arm of Congress.
"What these investigators found is shocking," Grassley said. "Even though it's government policy to let border agents waive through U.S. citizens, the agents on the front lines obviously need to be a lot more vigilant. Bartenders could spot the kind of fake IDs that were used by investigators. The officials in charge of border security need to be at least that good at their jobs."
Officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs Service testified before Grassley's committee this morning, as well. Federal law enforcement agencies are responsible for 368 land, sea and air Ports-of-Entry covering more than 8,000 miles of land and coastal borders. On March 1, both the INS and Customs will be folded into a new Department of Homeland Security.
"The issue of border security is a huge responsibility and could not be more important given the terrorist threat facing the United States. Today's hearing revealed that the door to our country is wide open and without the security checks needed to protect American citizens even after September 11," Grassley said. "I'm going to keep the heat on to improve our government's efforts in this area. My committee will continue its oversight."
Grassley also called on the watchdog for the Interior Department ? the inspector general ? to testify this morning about problems he has found with the law enforcement efforts of the department. The Interior Department is responsible for 37 percent of the Southwest border because it is either a national park or other public land. This is significant because the hardening of ports of entry by the INS and Customs has pushed drug smugglers and illegal aliens into desolate and rugged land maintained by the Interior Department.
"The result of the squeeze at the port of entry is a bulge at the more remote borders controlled by the Interior Department," Grassley said. "This puts park rangers and national park visitors at risk." Last summer, an on-duty ranger was killed by a fugitive drug smuggler from Mexico while patrolling Oregon Pipe Cactus Monument Park. During today's hearing, another witness showed night-vision footage of illegal aliens crossing the Southwest border through family campgrounds.
A witness from the National Park Service testified today that an estimated 250,000 undocumented illegal aliens pass through unprotected national park land every year.