Part Of New 'Immigration Security Initiative'
The United States wants
to place its own inspectors at several foreign airports within
months to seek out potential terrorists, a plan which some foreign
officials say would undermine their sovereignty. Robert Bonner, the
U.S. Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told Reuters on
Tuesday the agency was in preliminary talks with a number of
countries about the new "Immigration Security Initiative," under
which U.S. inspectors would vet the passports of U.S.-bound
travelers.
"They'd be working with the host nation and the airlines ... to
make sure they don't board people who have fraudulent travel
documents and who might also potentially be terrorists," Bonner
said. "I'd certainly like to think that we would be able to start
the (initiative) within a few months, at least in a couple of
countries."
Bonner would not name the countries, but said Britain, the
Netherlands and Australia already had similar programs in place and
were among the greatest proponents. Other states are less pleased
by the prospect. One European counterterrorism official said the
plan was part of U.S. efforts to push threats outside U.S. borders
and into other nations. "The United States wants to move border
controls forward, i.e. exert sovereign actions on foreign
territory. Therein lies the crux of the matter," the European
official said. He said the initiative was part of a pattern of U.S.
efforts to export their security problems. Other examples cited by
critical foreign officials include the Container Security
Initiative, which requires participating foreign ports to check
containers before they leave for the United States.
But Bonner shrugged off the criticism, saying the plan was based
on cooperation and reciprocity with other states, meaning
participating countries could place their own inspectors at U.S.
airports. He said concerns about sovereignty were unwarranted,
since the inspectors had no legal authority to prevent anyone from
boarding an airplane and they would not be armed. But he said
airlines were generally unwilling to allow a passenger on board who
they knew would not be admitted at the destination.
"The general concept is
very well-received and not just by other countries, but by the
airlines themselves," he said, explaining that carriers were glad
to take steps to avoid a penalty of up to $10,000 for bringing a
passenger to the United States who is denied entry. "The security
benefits are pretty obvious, and that is that you've decreased the
prospect that a potential terrorist is going to get on board the
airplane, and the economic benefits to the airline are also
obvious," Bonner added.
The commissioner said the United States was concerned that
militants could try to sneak into the country on forged travel
documents -- a lesson the country learned painfully through the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Members of the U.S. commission
investigating the attacks said earlier this year that at least two,
and as many as eight, of the 19 hijackers' passports "showed
evidence of fraudulent manipulation." Bonner said the
Immigration Security Initiative was based on a successful pilot
project run several years ago by the now-defunct Immigration and
Naturalization Service, but would have "a sharper anti-terrorism
focus."