By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON- The watchlist used to keep suspected terrorists from entering the United States is too vague and cumbersome to help Homeland Security Department agents weed out legitimate travelers quickly, the agency’s inspector general has concluded.
Innocuous travelers whose names are similar to those on the watchlist can be questioned and held for hours before being admitted into the country, according to a report released Monday by Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner. That results in “an extremely inefficient use” of border officers’ time, the report concluded.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers lack “authority to make timely and informed decisions regarding the admissibility of individuals who they could quickly confirm are not the suspected terrorist,” the report found.
A Homeland Security spokesman did not immediately answer a request for comment.
The 11-page report was the short, edited version of a classified document delivered to Homeland Security officials and Congress. It found that Customs and Border Protection officers often lack security clearances to review information about travelers on the watchlists. It also concluded that the officers do not uniformly report details of their encounters with suspicious travelers, potentially resulting in spotty intelligence analysis of terrorists.
Additionally, Skinner found that stepped-up terrorism inspections at the nation’s 324 air, land and sea ports of entry came as border arrests for drug smuggling and fake immigration documents have dropped.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, blamed “weak leadership” at Homeland Security. He said it “has left our border protection agents poorly armed to stop terrorist infiltration.”
The report “tells us that CBP has failed to provide its workers with the support they need to stop suspected terrorists from crossing our ports of entry,” said Lieberman.