Border Agents Say They Don't Have the Tools

Sep 1, 2004 12:00 PM

More than 60 percent of U.S. Border Patrol agents and immigration officers say the Department of Homeland Security could do more to stop potential terrorists from entering the United States, a new study says.

A similar percentage, 64 percent, say they could use more tools to keep terrorists from entering the country. Just 53 percent say the United States is more safe now than before the 2001 attacks, while 7 percent say it is less safe and 37 percent say it is no safer.

The survey, of 500 border agents and immigration inspectors, was conducted for the unions representing them by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.

“Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, it was extremely easy to enter the United States illegally,” T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told The New York Times. “Incredibly, this has not changed in any meaningful way.”

The survey also found low morale to be pervasive.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security dismissed the survey as biased and inaccurate, saying it offered only a limited snapshot of the views of the department's 42,000 employees. They cited a number of strides, among them airport inspectors' collection of digital fingerprints and photographs from more than six million foreign visitors since January, the first move toward creating a comprehensive system to screen travelers.

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