RE: [---Mexicans crossing the Border

[Guest guest]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Congress' 1996 mandate that Mexicans routinely entering the

United States use ID cards with fingerprints will take

effect today — even though the immigration service has yet

to install machines needed to read them.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service asked Congress

for money to buy the machines two years ago, but was turned

down because it didn't know exactly what kind of equipment

it needed, INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said.

Now the agency knows what it needs to scan the border cards

but doesn't have the money, he said.

Some Mexicans have yet to obtain the new cards, ensuring

more confusion when they present their old cards to enter

the United States to work this morning. The cards let

Mexicans enter the United States and travel within 25 miles

of the border for up to 72 hours at a time.

The State Department, which issues the cards, has asked

Congress to extend the deadline, but lawmakers have yet to

vote on it and are back in their home states for the

weekend. It is not clear how warm a reception the request

will get when they return.

"I think the time for extensions is over," Rep. Lamar ,

Texas Republican and former chairman of the House

immigration subcommittee, said Friday. The deadline has been

extended at least twice, he said.

The current chairmen of the House and Senate immigration

subcommittees, Rep. W. Gekas, Pennsylvania

Republican, and Sen. M. Kennedy, Massachusetts

Democrat, support a further extension.

Mr. said he assumed that Mexicans with old border

crossing cards would be admitted to the country today,

though with heightened security at border points due to the

Sept. 11 attacks, and would continue to be admitted until

INS gets the machines it needs to read the new cards.

Congress mandated use of fingerprinted border crossing cards

at the Mexican border as part of 1996 immigration

legislation.

The higher-security cards, which also feature magnetic

strips, help fight fraud, such as theft, forgery or

obtaining multiple cards.

Without the machines needed to read the new cards, however,

U.S. border inspectors must eyeball them the same way they

did the old ones, in essence rendering the new security

features meaningless.

The immigration service hopes to get funding for the

scanning machines as part of a budget request the Department

of Justice is putting together to help agencies deal with

the terrorist attacks, Mr. Bergeron said.

Meanwhile, the INS is working to get a plan in place by this

morning to handle people who do not have new cards, he said.

"Certainly we want to be able to do the best job we can. We

want to be able to utilize new technologies to improve our

ability to protect the border," Mr. Bergeron said.

"At the same time, we realize that the acquisition and

installation of new technologies takes time and money."

Mr. Gekas said he did not know what would happen at the

Mexican border today, but he would try to reinstate the old

system temporarily.

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