Opinion: Crossing the border: the GAO shows you how

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Commenter dharc noted a recent Government Accountability Office report (pdf) showing just how easy it is to cross the border. Though dharc went a little further (OK, a lot further) than I would go about what the findings mean, I thought I’d highlight some key points.

Undercover investigators approached both the northern and southern borders, at manned and unmanned points, 42 times, and they made it across nearly every time with verbal assertions that they were legal, or with counterfeit documents. Sometimes they behaved suspiciously -- taking photos, for example, or scarier still, pretending to carry radioactive material. (The GAO did something similar, with similarly alarming results, at borders two years ago [pdf], and more recently at airports [pdf] around the country. All of which makes me wonder how you get to be a secret agent for the GAO -- all of the fun, none of the danger. Here’s a report on their own investigations squad [pdf].)

The report makes for a good read, detailing a number of individual border-crosses and what resistance, if any, investigators encountered. It’s important to note, though, that the tests were done from 2003 to 2007, so some took place before the border security crackdown that really only began last year. And I had to wonder what the GAO investigations team looks like. From a quick read of the report, I find no indication; there’s a lone picture of a decently dressed businessman-type with a blurred face (and I understand, of course, the need to keep the identities of the small group of investigators a secret.) I can’t help but think they’d encounter a bit more trouble if they looked impoverished, Latino, or Muslim.

*Photo by Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times