I wish we could all get away with stuff like this.
The Homeland Security Department announced yesterday it would conduct background checks on U.S. port workers to make sure they aren’t illegal. “We will not tolerate the employment of illegal workers at our ports,” DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said announcing the initiative.
Well, that’s a crock. We’ve been tolerating the employment of illegal workers at our ports for years. Since 9/11, the main reason we’ve been putting up with it is because DHS couldn’t get its act together to issue tamper-proof ID cards and a background-check system to make sure only legal, non-terrorizing people help load and unload our ships.
In fact, just last month ten House Republicans lambasted Chertoff publicly for being so behind-schedule on the worker ID effort.
“[B]ureaucratic slowdowns and unforeseen obstacles have put this program over two years behind schedule,” they wrote, telling the former judge to get his act together and get the program rolling. And that’s just the most recent swipe: DHS has already faced years of angry letters from Democrats over this mess of a program, plus a GAO audit, testy hearings and more.
So let me get this straight: Bungle a program for years, leave security gaps at major ports, suffer criticism and investigations. At the eleventh hour, announce a symbolic band-aid — homeland security trade pubs are calling this a “stop-gap” measure — and win headlines for doing something?
Not a bad trick.
