It's All About Stopping Terrorism

The L.A. Times reports on the spread of the US-VISIT program (stands for "U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology"), establishing digital biometric identity checks for foreigners at U.S. border crossings. It was launched a year ago, has cost $700 million so far, and the feds have just announced they are extending it to cover 50 different U.S. land entry points, and by the end of 2005 should be covering every U.S. land port. How's it doing so far?

Last year, the new tools helped authorities arrest or deny entry to 372 people sought for federal or state crimes or identified as violators of immigration law, according to Department of Homeland Security officials.

None of those apprehended was linked to terrorist plots, officials acknowledged.
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"At the end of the day, our argument is, 'You're spending all this money, but how many terrorists have you caught?' " said Moira Whelan, a spokeswoman for the Democratic members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.

Hutchinson acknowledged that no terrorism suspects had been detained under the system, but he asserted that it served as an increasingly effective defense against the threat of terrorism.

Comments

[cdunlea]

Ah yes, and I see the graviton ray projector I invented is successfully keeping the moon from escaping the earth's gravity.

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

I'm glad we have biometric detectors at all points of entry. As we know -- all terrorists come through known points of entry.

Let's see, $700 million....170 million taxpayers....

Can I get my $4 back?

[Matt Furey]

"There's not a single bear in sight-the 'Bear Patrol' is working like a charm"
"That's specious reasoning," Lisa retorts
"Thanks, honey," Homer says to her, adoringly
"According to your logic," she says, picking up a stone from their lawn, "this rock keeps tigers away"
"Hmmm. How does it work?"
"It doesn't."
"How so?" Homer asks further
"It's just a rock," she says. "But I don't see a tiger, anywhere."
"Lisa," concludes Homer, while pulling out his wallet, "I want to buy your rock."

[too many steves]

Matt! You beat me to the post of that Simpson's quote. Dammit!

Let's do a little math:

$700,000,000.00 / 372 detainees = $1,881,720.43/detainee

$700,000,000.00 / 0 terrorists = mathmatically undefined but we might want to rethink further investment.

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Let's do a little math:

$700,000,000.00 / 372 detainees = $1,881,720.43/detainee

$700,000,000.00 / 0 terrorists = mathmatically undefined but we might want to rethink further investment.

I just want my $4 back.

[Lewis]

And there's a problem with spending this money??? You heard it first from the White House, "terrorists only have to be lucky once, we have to be lucky every time." I believe thats the caveat to do and spend anything your republican heart wants and still be considered fiscally conservative and showing 8 years of doing something about terrorism!

[crimethink]

TPG,

Ah, but you only paid $4 to catch 372 immigration violators -- that's barely a penny a pop? How can you have a problem with that?!

😉

[Jennifer]

Move along now! No mission creep to see here!

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Ah, but you only paid $4 to catch 372 immigration violators -- that's barely a penny a pop? How can you have a problem with that?!

Opportunity costs crime, opportunity costs. I could've spent that on formula for my son, or I could have paid the electric bill.

Or, I could have used it towardsd a lap dance next weekend.

Lap Dances > immigration violators

[thoreau]

But what if we didn't have that system in place and the lap dance was performed by an illegal immigrant? Don't you want to know that your strippers respect our immigration laws?

[cdunlea]

I think any woman under 35 who wants to enter this country should be able to go to a border crossing/airport customs point and audition for a visa. The audition would be to dance to "Shake ya Azz" by Mystikal (brass pole would be optional). If the Customs Service guys are impressed enough to put a couple of bucks (from the TSA budget) into the girl's panties she gets an automatic visa. Problem solved, and America is still the greatest country in the world.

[thoreau]

cdunlea-

Although as a married man I no longer care how many young attractive women are in this country, I do have a younger brother who really needs a girlfriend. How about a females-only immigration policy, complete with auditions?

[Dan]

What I'm curious about is -- how can Brian tell that this system is ineffective without knowing how many terrorists tried to enter the country at the checkpoints in question? If zero of them tried entering there, and zero were caught, how can we judge the system a failure? And if the reason that zero terrorists tried entering at those points is *because* this system was in use there, wouldn't that mean that the system was, in fact, successful -- and that the only failure is that the system isn't in sufficiently wide use?

Say your house gets broken into a lot. You begin (as you are able to afford it) placing locks and alarms on your doors and windows, one door and window at a time. Would it be surprising, with the system only half-complete, that you hadn't caught any burglars? Of course not -- there are still plenty of unprotected access points for burglars to use. But it would certainly be true that your system was providing an increasingly effective defense against burglars, would it not?

I'm not arguing that this system will, in the end, be cost-effective. But I'd like to see a rational argument as to why it will not, in the end, make it harder for terrorists to enter the country.

[Agammamon]

Because it relies on biometric identification of terrorists.

That means in order for it to work properly we would have to catch a suspected terrorist, send him to trial (and get a guilty verdict) at which point he becomes a known terrorist, get his biometric data to put in the system, and then let him go free so he has a chance of coming through the checkpoint again rather than rot in jail.

As an example, how much biometric data do we have for Bin Laden? Crappy voiceprint maybe, possibly some fingerprints, and his picture. So if OBL were to walk through this checkpoint how likely do you think it is that he'd trigger it?

Those 372 caught were caught because this wasn't their first time here. We already had the data needed to identifiy them. So unless our hypothetical terrorists are flying home for the holidays, once they get in they're pretty safe.

But I suppose that's just another reason we need internal passports.

[Bubba]

I thought the point of the system was to nab those whose visas had expired, or passports faked, etc. Not as a net to catch "known" terrorists. Surely a convicted terrorist would be smart enough to use a different route.