Ah, the good old days two choices: “Get your hands off my junk”
(Oops, sorry, no bomb here are up there – move along)
Stand up straight, don’t move: The world will be watching now
Very big and important issue: The Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) is expanding its police force into other countries –
a move they say is a “crackdown on drug smuggling, terrorism, and human
trafficking.” This report from a report by the New York Times.
Background: About 2,000 DHS employees are now
stationed in more than 70 nations around the world at 4 times the cost of any domestic agents.
Hundreds of DHS
gents are also aboard Coast Guard ships and flying in surveillance planes over
the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Those agents screen airport
passengers and inspect cargo on ships headed for the U.S. They’re also
training other nations’ customs and border officials.
A place close to home –
DHS agents in Canada and this question: Why are they working there and what functions do they
perform?
In
Canada, for example, they beef up a presence in airports and train stations, where they
have authority to “question, search, and detain Canadian citizens.”
Noteworthy: Many Canadians protested that in a
flurry of letters and emails back in August all aimed at their prime minister’s
office. Ralph Goodale, Canada’s Public
Safety Minister, told Parliament that the American officers would “rarely
question or detain Canadian citizens. He said the partnership helps the
two nations reduce threats from “drug smugglers, terrorists, and human
traffickers.”
However, it does not appear that Canadian
officers have the same ability to question or detain U.S. citizens on
American soil before journey in Canada.
At the same time, DHS expects to increase its presence
here at home, e.g., they want to hire another 15,000 ICE (Immigration
and Customs Enforcement) border agents for the U.S. duties (to shore up Trump’s war
on illegal immigration).
So, how do other countries view all
this involvement on their soil?
DHS’s
presence has created tension in some European countries, where leaders believe
the U.S. attempting to impose its own immigration laws and
procedures.
In Germany, for example, lawmakers have said Customs and
Border Protection officers are interviewing and investigating travelers at
airports before they are allowed to board flights to the United States.
Others say
the U.S. agents are simply boosting international security.
James Nealon, DHS Assistant Secy for
International Engagement said: “Many threats to the homeland begin overseas, and that’s
where we need to be,”
I note: So, we don’t trust our friends and allies to
do their jobs before people travel from their countries to the U.S.? So, are the
international efforts successful? According to the article, DHS point
to multiple examples of success with their work in other nations.
In Nairobi:
A DHS raining program led to “record seizures of narcotics and other smuggled
goods” and has helped secure its borders from militant groups such as the
Shabab.
In Pretoria
South Africa: DHS special agents stationed there have gone after “drug smugglers,
wildlife traffickers, and Nigerian scammers.”
In Tanzania:
ICE investigators were accused of “using Mafia-style tactics” as they helped
extradite alleged drug smuggling suspects to the U.S. Agents have
been credited with dismantling the network of an alleged international
drug kingpin, Ali Khatib Haji Hassan, and two of his alleged associates who had
operations dealing in heroin from Pakistan and Iran and cocaine from South
America.
So, as I
said, what is the cost to U.S. taxpayers?
The cost of
placing ICE agents overseas is being questioned by some lawmakers. A
congressional report found that the price tag for stationing an ICE agent
overseas is about four times the amount it costs to employ them in the
U.S.
At the same time, the National Treasury Employees Union, in a September
report to the House Homeland Security Committee, questioned plans to send more
customs officers to work overseas when the U.S. has “critical staffing
shortages at the nation’s ports of entry.”
==========================================================
Related: More
facial scanning at airports – why?
This
expansion comes at a time when DHS is already under scrutiny for
its biometric face-scanning program in select U.S. airports.
Right now,
they take pictures of the faces of international travelers bound for certain
flights at airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New York
City, Houston, and Washington, D.C. The face scans are entered into a DHS
database that “flags as many as one in 25 travelers for further scrutiny,” (cite
this report from
the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology).
In part they say: “If current
DHS plans are executed, every traveler flying overseas, American and foreign
national alike, will soon be subject to a face recognition scan as part of this
“biometric exit” program.”
I Note: This
expanded system will cost up to $1 billion. Already and in the past, thousands of
travelers complained about pat-down and body-scanning X-rays
procedures used by the TSA at airports. Remember those reports and pictures –
yuk.
My 2 cents as it were: Smile
– you’re on candid camera.
What do you think? As for me – this foreign program expansion to
me is unwarranted and not necessary, except very rarely in “hot spots” — so, what now we do not trust
in our allies and friends to help us? – wow – that’s pretty serious…
And, BTW I always thought the GOP complained about us
being “The world’s policeman and cost and such.”
Maybe a Rick Perry “oops” might fit at
this point, right Mr. and Mrs. Gee Old Poops?
Thanks for stopping by.
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