SERGIO BUSTOS
Citizen Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of high-tech scanners capable of verifying the identity of millions of Mexican travelers will be installed along major Southwest border crossing points at the end of June.
The machines can electronically scan digitized fingerprints and photographs that are embedded on credit-card-like documents called laser visas. They will give federal immigration authorities the ability to keep tabs on nearly 7 million Mexicans who are permitted to make short trips across the border.

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection's spokesman in Tucson, Roger Maier, said the machines aren't yet installed in Nogales. Maier expects the machines will be installed and operational all across Arizona's ports of entry by the end of this week.

Technology touted

Bush administration officials boast the technology will help it achieve its ambitious goal of tracking the entry and exit of foreign visitors to the United States.

Yet, despite millions of taxpayer dollars invested in the high-tech screening system, Homeland Security Department officials won't be using it to check the identity of all laser visa holders. They worry the time it takes to process such travelers could cause major delays along the busy Southwest border.

The policy, in effect, leaves almost unchanged a longstanding practice by immigration officials of randomly checking Mexicans carrying laser visas, often described as border crossing cards.

That policy is precisely what policy lawmakers sought to change in 1996 when it passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.

Lawmakers, frustrated with the high level of fraudulent use of the old "border crossing cards," called for replacing them with counterfeit-proof laser visas. The new document contains biometric data that includes the cardholder's personal information, fingerprints and photograph.

Proving who you are

To obtain the special visa, Mexicans are interviewed by State Department officials and must prove they have no intention of illegally remaining here by demonstrating their financial ties to Mexico. They also must pass background checks.

The laser visa allows Mexicans to travel within 25 miles of the border for up to 72 hours at a time. In Arizona, they can travel within 75 miles of the border.

Mexicans living along the border typically use the visas to visit relatives, shop or conduct business in the United States. Last year, they made about 104 million such trips, making the Southwest one of the world's busiest border crossings.

The vast majority of Mexicans comply with the visa's strict requirements, but the document is in demand among those seeking to illegally enter the country.

Between fiscal years 1998 and 2001, federal immigration authorities confiscated more than 130,000 fraudulent border crossing cards, the most of any travel or immigration document, according to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The administration's policy toward Mexican laser visa holders is troubling to lawmakers.

At a hearing last month before the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, Robert Jacksta, a top official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was peppered with questions about how immigration inspectors would authenticate a laser visa holder's identity when the document isn't being swiped through a scanner.

"That's of concern to me," Rep. John Hostettler, R-Indiana, the committee chairman, said.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, asked how immigration inspectors would enforce the 72-hour visa rule if nobody is recording the card holder's entry and exit.

"If they overstay, then, is it just a freebie?" asked Flake.

"Currently, there is no mechanism to determine whether they have overstayed their 72 hours," Jacksta bluntly admitted to the committee.

He said immigration inspectors would rely on their "intuition" to stop anyone they deemed suspicious.

"During specific times of the day, we would use the (scanner), but every individual coming across the border is not going to have their (laser visa) read," Jacksta said.

Flake later said he was surprised federal immigration officials were not going to fully take advantage of the new screening system to verify the identity of laser visa holders. "The technology is there," he said.

He and other lawmakers are particularly worried about the policy toward Mexican laser visa holders because the same group of Mexican travelers is not being required to participate in the strict US-VISIT program.

Response to 9/11 attacks

Launched in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, US-VISIT is designed to keep out criminals and terrorists. It requires millions of foreign visitors to submit fingerprints and photographs to U.S. authorities upon entering the country.

Since going into effect at major airports and seaports on Jan. 5, Homeland Security officials said they have apprehended more than 100 wanted criminals and kept them from entering the country.

More than 2.2 million foreign visitors have been fingerprinted and photographed as part of the US-VISIT program.

But President Bush and Mexico President Vicente Fox reached an agreement last month not to enroll Mexican laser visa holders with US-VISIT. Fox had complained to Bush that US-VISIT requirements were unfair to Mexicans because the rules did not apply to Canadians.

Canadians, who are exempt from US-VISIT, are allowed to visit the United States for up to six months without a visa and can travel anywhere in the country.

Mexicans who want to stay longer than 72 hours and travel beyond the border must apply for a visa and would be fingerprinted and photographed under the US-VISIT program.

Homeland Security Department Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, who's in charge of border security, has assured Congress that Mexicans with laser visas do not represent a security risk to the United States because they have already undergone extensive background checks.

Hutchinson said his agency is working on a plan to use "radio frequency technology" to automatically record the entry and exit of all laser visa holders to speed the processing of such travelers.

Critics charge that failing to electronically authenticate the identity of Mexicans with the 72-hour visas runs counter to the government's goal of keeping track of all foreign visitors.

"We are basically creating an honor system along the Southwest border," said Jessica Vaughan, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates stricter border security policies.

"It's incredible that we would go through all this effort and expense, yet not take advantage of the technology to authenticate the identity of millions of people coming into our country," she said.

Citizen Staff Writer Luke Turf contributed to this report.