GAO: Borders vulnerable

WASHINGTON — Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification.

At nine crossings on the Mexican and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) testimony to be released today.

"This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The findings, to be presented to the Senate Finance Committee, come as Congress considers delaying a 2007 deadline requiring passports or a small number of previously approved tamper-proof ID cards from all who enter the United States.

Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said agents are trained to identify false birth certificates, driver's licenses and other documents. But he conceded agents sometimes cannot verify more than 8,000 different kinds of now-acceptable IDs without slowing border traffic.

"This creates a security vulnerability we were hoping to close" by the end of next year, Agen said.

The GAO probe follows a similar inquiry in 2003 and 2004 when undercover investigators crossed into the United States at least 14 times using counterfeit driver's licenses and, in one case, an expired, altered U.S. diplomatic passport. During that investigation, however, border agents in New York and Florida stopped three undercover officials who were using expired and forged documents.

By comparison, between February and June 2006, 18 GAO investigators breezed by border agents at checkpoints in Washington state, California, Texas, Michigan, Idaho, and twice each in Arizona and New York. In two cases — in Arizona and California — border agents did not ask for any identification.

In a third case, in Texas, investigators offered to show identification — a counterfeit Virginia driver's license. The border agent replied, "OK, that would be good," but released the investigators before inspecting it, according to the prepared testimony by GAO investigator Gregory Kutz.

Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers used fake Virginia residency certificates to get valid state ID cards needed to board the planes that flew into the World Trade Center.