Technology nabbing criminals at borders

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 19, 2005

The U.S. Border Patrol has arrested tens of thousands of people with criminal records, including suspected murderers, rapists and child molesters, since the agency installed a fingerprinting system in September that identifies criminals among the 1 million illegal migrants apprehended every year.

The high-tech system is part of a broader effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create a “virtual border” to stop terrorists and those with criminal pasts from entering the United States .

The fingerprints of all detained illegal immigrants are now matched against the FBI’s national criminal database through scanners installed at all 137 Border Patrol stations along the Canadian and Mexican borders. To process a person, all 10 fingerprints are rolled across a scanner, and the digitized images are compared against the database’s 47 million records. The results usually come back within minutes.

About 30,000 of the 680,000 illegal migrants who were arrested from May through December were identified as having criminal records, compared with about 2,600 during the same period in 2002 – more than an elevenfold increase. Criminal illegal immigrants are those with past arrests or convictions for crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder.

Since its start as a pilot program in 2003, the system has identified about 24 people suspected of homicide, 55 of rape and 225 of assault, according to Border Patrol statistics.

The system, installed over a six-month period ending in September, has made it difficult for suspects to flee the country and then return. That was common in the past when illegal border-crossers who had criminal records or outstanding warrants often were simply deported because agents lacked tools to quickly investigate criminal histories.

The surge in arrests probably will strain the ability of federal agencies to house and prosecute criminal illegal immigrants, law enforcement experts say.

How the Border Patrol handles the people it identifies depends on their records. People who have active warrants against them are handed over to the agencies that issued the warrants. Those with violent criminal records can be prosecuted for illegally re-entering the country and face potential 20-year prison terms.

People stopped at the border who have prior convictions for nonviolent crimes – the majority of cases – are usually expelled from the country, according to Border Patrol officials.

The technology overhaul, experts say, has greatly enhanced policing on the border. “It’s a great step forward … a great aid to law enforcement,” said Joseph King, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

The apprehensions provide a potential bright spot for Homeland Security. The department has been criticized for being slow to take advantage of new technologies that confirm the identities of people entering the United States.

Similar systems have been installed at many U.S. ports of entry and airports, where only a small percentage of visitors are screened. Eventually, Homeland Security wants to scan the fingerprints of all foreign visitors to the United States.

The FBI criminal database contains terrorist watch lists as well as information on warrants and criminal histories.

Murder and rape suspects caught since September have been wanted by police agencies from Santa Maria, Calif., to New York City, according to Border Patrol officials. Some had been on the run for years.

The value of the new technology has been most dramatically demonstrated in Arizona – the main crossing point for illegal immigrants from Mexico – where agents in October apprehended an average of 40 criminal illegal immigrants a day, according to Border Patrol statistics. Most of those apprehended have been Mexican citizens.

Lacking the investigative capability or facilities to house detainees during background checks, the Border Patrol would return to Mexico most of those with criminal pasts.

The results can be tragic. In 2002, Victor Manual Batres was captured and returned to Mexico without agents learning of his extensive criminal history. After re-entering the country, Batres traveled to Oregon, where he raped two Roman Catholic nuns, killing one of them. He later pleaded guilty to one count each of murder and rape.

Those cases put pressure on federal officials to complete the new system, which had been in the works since 1989. The installation was delayed in part because the FBI and Border Patrol developed separate databases that were not integrated.

Implementation wasn’t put on a fast track until after the 2001 terrorist attacks, when Congress approved the U.S. Patriot Act. The law provided more resources to improve border security against terrorist threats.