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entitled 'Weaknesses In Screening Entrants Into The United States' 
which was released on January 30, 2002.

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United States General Accounting Office: 
GAO: 

Testimony: 

Before the Committee on Finance United States Senate: 

For Release on Delivery: 
Expected at 10:00 a.m.: 
Thursday, January 30, 2003: 

Weaknesses In Screening Entrants Into The United States: 

Statement of Robert J. Cramer, Managing Director: 
Office of Special Investigations: 

GAO-03-438T: 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: 

I am here today to discuss the results of our work described in our 
January 30, 2003, Limited Official Use report to this Committee 
entitled Weaknesses in Screening Entrants into the United States (GAO-
03-425R).[Footnote 1] This work was completed in response to your 
request that agents of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) 
attempt to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico and Jamaica at 
land, air, and sea ports of entry using fictitious identities and 
counterfeit identification documents. The purpose was to test whether 
U. S. government officials conducting inspections at the port of entry 
would detect the counterfeit identification documents. 

I am accompanied this morning by Ronald Malfi, Director for 
Investigations, and Assistant Director John Cooney. 

In summary, we created fictitious driver’s licenses and birth 
certificates using off-the-shelf computer graphic software that is 
available to any purchaser. In addition, we obtained and carried credit 
cards in the fictitious names that were used in these tests. Our agents 
entered the United States from Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica through 
ports of entry using fictitious names and these counterfeit 
identification documents. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) 
and U.S. Customs Service officials never questioned the authenticity of 
the counterfeit documents, and our agents encountered no difficulty
entering the country using them. On two occasions, INS officials did 
not ask for or inspect any identification documents when our agents 
entered the United States. On another occasion an agent was able to 
walk across a major border checkpoint and was not stopped or inspected 
by any government official. 

INS regulations require that all persons who arrive at a U.S. port of 
entry be inspected by a government official. A U.S. citizen traveling 
inside countries in the Western Hemisphere, such as those we visited 
for purposes of these tests, is not required to show a passport when 
entering the United States but is required to prove citizenship. INS
accepts as proof of citizenship documents such as a U.S. state or 
federally issued birth certificate or a baptismal record, and photo 
identification such as a driver’s license. However, since the law does 
not require that U.S. citizens present documents to prove citizenship 
when entering the United States, INS also permits travelers to 
establish U.S. citizenship by oral statements alone. 

U.S. Border Crossings from Canada: 

The first border crossing by OSI agents occurred when two of our agents 
entered the United States through a sea port of entry from Canada. On 
that occasion, the agents were not asked to show any identification. On 
a subsequent occasion, two agents, driving a rented car with Canadian 
plates, using fictitious names and counterfeit documents, crossed the 
border into the United States at a Canadian land border crossing. A 
U.S. Customs inspector asked for identification and was provided the 
counterfeit documents. After the inspector reviewed the documents, the 
agents were allowed to cross the border. 

During the Canadian land border crossing, the agents discovered a 
further potential security problem. A park straddles the U.S. and 
Canada at this border crossing. One of our agents was able to walk 
across this park into the United States from Canada without being 
stopped or questioned by any U.S. government official. Later that agent 
walked back to Canada through this park without being inspected by 
Canadian authorities. 

U.S. Border Crossing from Mexico: 

The second series of border crossings were from Mexico. On one 
occasion, at a land border crossing, an INS inspector asked our agent 
if he was a U.S. citizen and whether he had brought anything across the 
border from Mexico. After the agent responded that he was a U.S. 
citizen and that he was not bringing anything into the United States 
from Mexico, the inspector allowed him to proceed without requiring any 
proof of identity. 

On a subsequent occasion at the same border crossing, two of our agents 
were asked by INS inspectors for identification. Both agents presented 
counterfeit driver’s licenses and were allowed to cross into the United 
States. 

U.S. Border Crossing from Jamaica: 

The third set of border crossings were from Jamaica. Two of our agents 
traveling on one-way tickets from Jamaica arrived at an airport in the 
United States. Each agent presented to INS inspectors counterfeit 
identification documents. The INS inspectors did not recognize any of 
the documents presented as counterfeit and allowed the agents to enter 
the United States. 

Conclusion: 

We recognize that weaknesses in inspection processes for entrants into 
the United States raise complex issues. We are currently performing an 
evaluation of those processes pursuant to the Illegal Immigration 
Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that will be reported 
to Congress in the coming months. Although INS inspects millions of 
people who enter the United States and detects thousands of individuals 
who attempt to illegally enter the United States each year, the results 
of our work indicate that (1) people who enter the United States are 
not always asked to present identification, (2) security to prevent 
unauthorized persons from entering the United States from Canada is 
inadequate at the border park we visited, and (3) INS inspectors are not
readily capable of detecting counterfeit identification documents. We 
plan to discuss further with INS options for better training of 
inspectors in detecting counterfeit documents. 

Mr. Chairman, this completes my prepared statement. We will be pleased 
to respond to any questions you or other members of the Committee may 
have at this time. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] The Immigration and Naturalization Service designated our report as 
“Limited Official Use.” 

[End of section] 

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