GAO faults border security

Houston Chronicle:

Government inspectors guarding the nation's ports of entry are understaffed, fatigued from excessive overtime, poorly trained and frequently fail to question visitors entering the country, according to an audit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations.

The Government Accountability Office, in an audit released this week, said that although CBP inspectors have had some success in identifying individuals not authorized to enter the U.S., they allowed ''several thousand" criminals and inadmissible immigrants to enter in fiscal year 2006.

The GAO concluded that weaknesses in the agency's operations increase the potential that terrorists could penetrate the country.

In addition to needing several thousand new inspectors — in part because of an accelerating attrition rate — the GAO reported the agency estimated that $4 billion worth of physical security improvements are needed at 163 land crossings.

News of the critical report comes as the Bush administration is tightening security on the Southwest border through enhanced surveillance technology, construction of a controversial border fence and hiring thousands of agents for the U.S. Border Patrol, an agency not responsible for port inspection.

Among the GAO findings:

•At 150 ports, there were ''numerous instances" of inspectors failing to determine citizenship or admissibility of incoming visitors. At one port, CBP officers waved pedestrians through an inspection lane without looking at them or making verbal contact.
•Fifty-two officers resign from the agency every two weeks, up from 34 in 2005.
•At six of eight large ports checked, officers said fatigue from excessive overtime was harming inspections.
•At one port, new officers had not taken a course on immigration despite working there for three years.

...

This is not good. Staffing appears to be one of the issues. The union says 4,000 additional employees are needed. Many of the current employees are working 16 hour shifts. On Congressman says the focus is too much directed toward customer service and not enough toward protection. Like much of the work in the immigration area it appears that the staff is overwhelmed and merely going through the motions.