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INS computer system in spotlight following release of wanted man
By Marcus Stern
COPLEY NEWS SERVICEJuly 3, 1999
WASHINGTON -- A computer system authorities blame for the Border Patrol's June 2 release of suspected serial killer Raphael Resendez-Ramirez was developed in San Diego and has been plagued by setbacks from the start.
But never has it triggered the kind of aftershocks being felt today.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has been rocked by revelations that its agents caught and released Resendez-Ramirez even though he is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, the subject of an intense manhunt and has been featured prominently on national television.
The suspected serial killer has been caught and released voluntarily back into Mexico nine times by the Border Patrol in the past 18 months despite three formal deportations. He is accused of at least eight murders, four of which occurred after the Border Patrol released him during the early morning of June 2.
Blame for the patrol's most recent release was pinned on the limits of the IDENT system, whose origins are closely tied to the border crackdown in San Diego known as Operation Gatekeeper. Since IDENT and Gatekeeper were launched together in Imperial Beach in 1994, the INS has hailed the IDENT pilot project and put it to use nationwide.
IDENT is an electronic system that stores fingerprints and photos of people caught trying to enter the country illegally. It is designed primarily to flag criminals and people who repeatedly try to cross the border illegally.
Touted by INS officials as something of a fail-safe, it is now in use at 408 INS border sites, in many airports and even in some cities.
But IDENT was heavily criticized in a March 1998 report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General and again in a report last month by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
INS officials insisted this week that the system works as intended.
Whether it does is of special concern in California. IDENT is relied on as a safeguard against criminals returning from Mexico after serving time in California prisons for violent and drug-related crimes.
While the INS is supposed to enter the fingerprints and photos of all deportees and known criminal aliens into the system, the inspector general found that INS had inputted only 41 percent of the people it deported in fiscal year 1996.
Last year, the INS deported 172,312 people, including 56,083 criminals. When INS officials are asked how they can be sure the criminal deportees don't return illegally, they frequently cite IDENT.
That claim raises eyebrows among critics who say that criminal deportees dropped off at the border in San Ysidro often are back in Los Angeles even before the INS buses that took them to the border.
For that reason, the clear failure of IDENT in the handling of Resendez-Ramirez intensified anger and doubts on Capitol Hill this week.
"The brutality of the crimes linked to this suspect is unimaginable," Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., wrote in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, who oversees the INS. "That the INS would allow a man suspected of such brutality to circulate back onto the streets of the United States, Mexico -- or anywhere else in the world for that matter -- is deplorable."
Rogers, who heads the subcommittee that writes the INS budget and is trying to dismantle the agency, said he was "astounded by what appears to be another act of sheer INS incompetence."
On a note of irony, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said, "In a tragic coincidence, the INS reportedly solicited another $98 million in contracts to expand IDENT on June 4, the same day that Resendez-Ramirez allegedly killed his victim in Fayette County, Texas."
INS Commissioner Doris Meissner reacted sheepishly.
"Obviously, we look at a case like this, and it's horrifying that somebody like this could exist and could be at large," Meissner said.
"My reaction was, 'Did something fail here?' And I want to know if it did, what it was and what can be done about it so it doesn't happen again," she said during an appearance Thursday in Dallas.
To answer her question, Meissner has asked the Justice Department inspector general once again to review the program and, this time, take a close look at the agency's handling of Resendez-Ramirez.
Meanwhile, other INS officials defended the IDENT system.
"IDENT is working the way it was designed to work and is fulfilling the purpose for which it was developed," said INS spokesman Russell A. Bergeron. "And that was to provide us with a biometric database (including fingerprints and photos) through which we can identify individuals who have been removed from the United States, people the INS has encountered who have criminal backgrounds and individuals who are threats to national security."
And so why didn't IDENT flag the suspected serial killer?
Because he wasn't listed on the lookout, Bergeron said. The reason he wasn't flagged as someone to look for even on the eve of his placement on the FBI's most wanted list, one INS source said, is because no outside law enforcement agency had asked the INS to put him on the lookout in IDENT.
And even though an INS investigator had assisted the Houston Police Department in its investigation of Resendez-Ramirez back in December, the INS agent, even after reviewing his immigration and criminal records, didn't flag the suspected killer in the IDENT system.
Why not?
That's a matter for the inspector general, Bergeron said.
Nor were Resendez-Ramirez's three prior deportations in IDENT. Had they been, he would have been automatically held and referred to the U.S. attorney for prosecution on charges of felony re-entry after deportation.
But Resendez-Ramirez's deportations occurred long ago and therefore were not listed in the IDENT database, Bergeron said. IDENT doesn't keep track of deportations or other actions that occurred before the system was online.
Nor does it have direct ties to other law enforcement databases. Nor is it integrated with INS' own Central Index System, which is supposed to be a complete central record on each immigrant. Nor is it tied to any other INS databases, including the central archive of deportations.
"Nothing is in IDENT to tell (the Border Patrol agents) of this individual's (Resendez-Ramirez) previous deportation history because it occurred before IDENT existed," Bergeron said. "And nothing is in IDENT to tell them of outstanding warrants, because nothing has been input into IDENT at the request of the outside agencies."
Justice Department officials could not say this week when the inspector general's report into the matter might be concluded.
Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.