Antiquated tech, passwords galore hinder ICE agents
LOS ANGELES — U.S. immigration agents waste their time logging in and out of archaic computer systems while trying to track down foreigners suspected of overstaying their visas only to find out later that many visa holders have left the country, said a government watchdog report released last week.
Agents and analysts must use 10 to 40 passwords to access the computer systems and 40 percent of the cases investigated one year turned out not to be overstays, said the report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.
The report also disclosed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been locked out of computer systems for periods ranging from several minutes to days. Some agents kept their passwords written out on their desks, creating a security risk, the report said.
One agent said nearly one in five of the visa holders he investigated had already left the country, and pursuing those leads took 225 hours of his time, according to the report.
“The time being wasted on investigating false leads increased the risk that legitimate overstays were being overlooked,” the report said.
The report addresses an issue that the administration of President Donald Trump will have to solve as he makes immigration enforcement a top priority of his administration.
People who overstay their visas have become the main source of illegal immigration in the U.S. in recent years, representing a sizable portion of the population that the new administration has vowed to arrest and deport.
In cases where immigration authorities have located immigrants with visa overstays, their arrests have generated controversy.
For example, on the day before the inspector general released the report, protesters took to the streets in Utah to demonstrate against the arrest of a Mexican immigrant who overstayed her visa in 1993 and was arrested outside a craft store last week.
“Visa security is a matter of national security, and it is imperative that we know who is coming to our country and when they leave so that we protect American citizens and our interests,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said in response to the report.
Many of the computer systems used by the agents were inherited by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when it was created in 2003, two years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The old technology plus insufficient training for agents hampers their ability to monitor the immigration status and whereabouts of visa holders who travel to the U.S. for business, vacation, studies or other reasons, the report said.
“As a result, it may take months for ICE to determine a visa holder’s status and whether that person may pose a national security threat,” the inspector general’s office said.