Report: U.S. vulnerable without master database
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — U.S. border authorities and the FBI are still four years away from developing a master database of fingerprints and criminal histories that would instantly identify dangerous illegal immigrants. The delay leaves a gaping hole in the nation's effort to secure the homeland, Justice Department investigators found.
Federal authorities have been working on the database project for more than a decade. But a combination of funding problems and bad planning has put the system more than two years behind schedule and allowed known criminals to escape detection to commit additional crimes, investigators concluded.
In a report issued Tuesday, the Justice Department's inspector general cited cases in which the absence of a universal database system contributed to the release of two illegal immigrants who had a history of offenses in the USA and went on to claim more victims.
One of the illegals, Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, was linked to a string of murders in 1999 in Texas and Kentucky. The second man, Victor Manual Batres, was convicted in the rapes of two Catholic nuns in 2002 in Klamath Falls, Ore. One of the nuns was killed in the attack.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-03-03-crime-db-needed_x.htm