DHS relied on flawed information in extending visa waiver program
Contributing factors are understaffing and lack of information on lost or stolen passports; report comes as U.S. delays renewing program; Europe turns on the heat
Garbage in, garbage out is the first rule of computer science and any analytical enterprise. Somebody should inform DHS. Congressional researchers at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the agency used outdated information when deciding in 2004 to continue a visa waiver program that allowed vistors from twenty-seven countries to enter the United States without visas.
Among the problems cited by GAO were poor staffing in the Office of International Enforcement and a lack of information about lost and stolen foreign passports. “Athough homeland security officials want countries to report lost and stolen passports to Interpol, the U.S. has no mechanism for countries to do so,” reports Suzanne Gamboa of AP. “Four of the countries don’t report such information to Interpol and some do not report it on a regular basis.”
The GAO report comes at a sensitive time for the via waiver program. Delays in extending it once again have led the European Commission to consider asking European Union countries to impose visa requirements on U.S. diplomats. At issue is whether Greece and the nine states that joined the 25-member bloc in 2004, many of which are from the former Soviet Union, should be permitted to participate.
-read more in Suzanne Gamboa’s AP report
