DS Role in Homeland Security and Border Protection

Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.  I greatly appreciate this opportunity to speak with you today at this year’s border terrorism conference and I am honored to share the podium with so many distinguished colleagues in the diplomatic, legislative and law enforcement communities. Their presence here serves to emphasize what I’m sure we can all agree is the increasingly critical role that border security plays in our nation’s post-9/11 security strategy. 

Many of you have worked with Diplomatic Security agents here in Texas and all along the border. Our domestic role of conducting criminal passport and visa investigations and our protective responsibilities for the Secretary of State, and visiting foreign dignitaries brings our agents into frequent contact with federal, state, and local law enforcement officers such as yourselves. Frankly, we couldn’t do our job without the outstanding support provided by you and your colleagues and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for that needed support.

Before discussing our fraudulent document initiative, I’d also like to briefly mention the important role DS special agents play in countering terrorism overseas. Today, Diplomatic Security is the most widely represented U.S. security and law enforcement agency worldwide. Nearly 480 special agents are domestically assigned to our 23 regional field and resident offices, and 19 work with Joint Terrorism Task Force offices around the country.  Additionally, a nearly equal number of agents are assigned overseas at some 260 diplomatic posts in 181 countries.  We have forged solid working relationships with foreign police and security services across the globe, and, as a result, the law enforcement and security arm of the U.S. Department of State has become truly global in reach.

It is often said that the events of 9/11 “changed everything,” and that statement certainly applies to the State Department and DS. In truth, though, we at State, first felt the full effects of the new terrorist reality in 1998 when we lost two embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to car bombs in a single day. Those events, as well as the 9/11 attacks, spurred us to significantly upgrade the security posture of all our diplomatic establishments throughout the world. DS agents stationed overseas are largely responsible for this effort which includes implementing and supervising a wide array of physical security measures—barriers, guard programs, bomb detection programs, etc.—as well as taking more pro-active measures designed to deter and disrupt the terrorists where they live.

Diplomatic Security also runs several programs that are designed to deter or prevent future terrorist activities as well as promote cooperation beyond our borders. One such effort, the Antiterrorism Assistance Program, provides terrorism-focused police training to civilian security personnel from friendly governments. Since the program’s inception 20 years ago, we have trained more than 31,000 foreign police officers from 127 countries in bomb detection, crime scene investigations, crisis management, airport and building security, maritime security, and dignitary protection. These law enforcement officials return to their countries better prepared to fight terrorism and to protect our citizens overseas during heightened threat situations or related crises.

DS’ Overseas Security Advisory Council, or OSAC, is one of the premier security-focused public-private partnerships in the United States today.  Through OSAC, DS provides current, credible, and factual security-related information to the American private sector so they can make the best security and business decisions possible in order to protect their interests, and reduce their vulnerabilities abroad.  During the recent war with Iraq, members of the American private sector visited the OSAC web site over one million times to receive up-to-date security information.  It’s also important to note that OSAC is a free service to the American private sector—think of it as a solid and immediate return on your tax dollars! 

Our Rewards for Justice Program, also emphasizes Diplomatic Security’s commitment to antiterrorism efforts.  Created in 1992, Rewards for Justice has paid over $49 million dollars for information leading to the capture of terrorists or individuals associated with terrorist-friendly regimes—including Ramzi Yousef and, most recently, Uday and Qusay Hussein.  Currently, the Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $25 million for information leading to the identification or capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden.

Finally, while not strictly related to terrorism, I can’t speak to a room full of law enforcement officers without at least mentioning the partnerships we have developed with INTERPOL and the U.S. Marshals Service to link our databases and share information on international fugitives.

Also, since signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Marshals in January 2001, DS agents overseas have assisted in the apprehension and return to the United States of 74 fugitives wanted by U.S. law enforcement authorities.  Among noteworthy cases, apprehensions to date have included a former Georgia State senator convicted on corruption charges who fled to the Bahamas; a Marshals Top 15 fugitive located in Belize who was wanted for child molestation and homicide; a Russian national wanted for a double murder in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and a Cuban-American wanted on child molestation charges who fled the country from Roanoke, Virginia, while on supervised release. 

All that said about our overseas programs, we are not content just to stand on the sidelines, handing out rewards or dispensing advice to foreign and domestic enterprises.  The proactive investigative arm of Diplomatic Security is charged with upholding the integrity of United States travel documents—the passport and the visa. These two items are often called, “the most respected travel documents in the world.”  The U.S. passport is the internationally recognized certification that the bearer is a citizen of this country.  The U.S. visa, attached in a foreign passport, proclaims to authorities that the person who holds it has permission to legally travel and/or work in the United States.  They are powerful documents and, as such, are the most sought after in the world, both by legitimate qualified applicants as well as unqualified individuals seeking to obtain permanent residency the “easy way” or looking to gain illegal entry into the United States.

Our travel documents are most often illegally obtained in one of two ways: by altering and counterfeiting genuine U.S. passports and visas or by providing false information or documentation in support of an application.  New and improved security features on our passport and visas have made them increasingly difficult to alter or counterfeit, although numerous attempts are still made on a daily basis to enter this country with false U.S. travel documents.  For example, digitized photographs in our newest passports and machine-readable visas make photo substitution attempts, one of the most popular fraud methods, increasingly more difficult.  In our next generation of passports, the introduction of biometric data into the document should make our passports even more secure.

Similar efforts are underway to improve the security of visas and border crossing cards.  We are pleased with these advances in the security of U.S. travel documents and fully support the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the arm of the State Department charged with passport and visa issuance, efforts to improve them even further.  The federal government is also fully behind a major diplomatic effort to persuade 54 member nations of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe to adopt biometric standards for their passports.  We believe harmonizing travel document security measures and features among OSCE states would greatly inhibit the movement of terrorists. 

 There is however, a dark cloud inside the silver lining of our efforts to make passports and visa difficult to alter or counterfeit.  As travel document security continues to improve, those who seek them illegally are forced to find different and creative ways to overcome these impediments.  As a result, we’re seeing increasing and fairly sophisticated attempts to obtain genuine passports and visas through illegal means.  Unlawful applicants often obtain fraudulent support documents such as false birth certificates, driver’s licenses, school transcripts, or other so called “breeder” documents.  These counterfeit support documents can be of particularly high quality and difficult to detect, possibly helping a determined illegal recipient slip into the country. 

Here again, the State Department’ s Consular Affairs bureau performs a vital role in enhancing U.S. border security and fraud prevention in the application for U.S. travel documents through training, information sharing, and operational support programs for both domestic passport agencies and embassy consular sections abroad.

By enhancing the ability of our passport and visa adjudicators to spot breeder documents and make quality issuance decisions, Consular Affairs promotes the travel of legitimate visitors while deterring the entrance of those who would seek our harm.  In furtherance of this goal, they also produce a number of publications, including intelligence alerts that share data on missing/lost/stolen passports as well as a bimonthly fraud digest, which discusses fraud trends and fraud prevention management strategies. 

Finally, CA’s training staff conducts a wide range of fraud detection instruction at passport agencies, post offices, and embassy consular sections abroad as well as assisting DS with agent training on passport and visa fraud investigations.  

Another method for obtaining a genuine U.S. passport or visa is to attempt to bribe or extort a passport examiner or visa adjudicator to issue a legitimate travel document.  Through a number of our investigations, Diplomatic Security has determined a U.S. visa can command as much as $25,000 on the street.  Here again, we have a "good news, bad news" situation.  The high price for a genuine visa indicates they are hard to obtain, but also encourages visa broker operations, large scale fraud rings and attempts to purchase services directly from our employees.  Some of the participants in these schemes are experienced and organized criminals with possible links to terrorism.  As such, the significance of our investigations has increased proportionately with the growing threat that passport and visa fraud pose to our national security. 

This escalating responsibility is not one that Diplomatic Security wishes to handle alone, especially given our other antiterrorism roles.  We are committed to increasing communication and expanding cooperation amongst our colleagues, and we continue to reach out and establish effective partnerships with other State Department bureaus and law enforcement agencies.  These partnerships form the cornerstone of our agency’s border security efforts. 

First and foremost, we have developed a closer and more extensive working relationship with the Bureau of Consular Affairs—the State Department organization charged with passport and visa issuance both domestically and overseas.  As DS and Consular Affairs share the mission to protect the integrity of the passport and visa issuance process, the formation of a more effective partnership was not only inevitable, but also essential.  Together, Diplomatic Security and Consular Affairs advocate a proactive identification, deterrence, and enforcement program aimed at external passport and visa fraud, as well as a zero-tolerance policy for internal employee corruption. 

One example that illustrates the success of DS and CA’s partnership is the recent spike in investigative activity.  Last year, DS investigated 3,500 passport fraud cases and made nearly 350 arrests.  Comparatively, while the number of passport applications has declined substantially this year due to decreased travel, fraud cases opened has remained fairly steady, and arrests for passport fraud have significantly increased, exceeding 650 and putting us on course to more than double last year’s arrest totals. 

These results beg the obvious question, “Why the increased number of apprehensions?”  The answer lies in the many initiatives and improvements that Diplomatic Security has taken in conjunction with Consular Affairs.  This year, we have placed nearly 40 percent more DS agents in domestic offices, many of which are co-located with Consular Affairs passport agencies to ensure tighter coordination between bureaus.  Secondly, we have increased the efficiency in which Consular Affairs refers suspected fraud cases to DS for investigation—at 2,200 referrals this year, we have almost surpassed last years totals.  Combined with improved internal technologies and the opening of a second regional passport center in Charleston, South Carolina, Diplomatic Security expects a continued increase in passport fraud investigations and arrests over the coming years. 

One example of Diplomatic Security’s successes in thwarting passport fraud and of the possible nexus it has to terrorism, was a 2002 investigation of document vendors in Miami.  DS coordinated with the FBI, INS, and other agencies to identify vendors who provided seed documents including bank statements, diplomas, and driver’s licenses to establish fictitious personal backgrounds.  A multi-agency operation followed which resulted in the execution of 12 search warrants, 11 arrest warrants, approximately 20 subpoenas, and the identification of 13 individuals related to terrorist activities.  The information on these individuals was subsequently disseminated to the Miami Joint Terrorism Task Force for further action.

Similarly, the number of visa fraud arrests has nearly doubled this year.  Of special mention, Diplomatic Security carried out high-profile visa fraud operations to root out internal corruption at American Consulates in Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and the American Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  These operations led to the arrest of 14 individuals, six of whom were Department of State employees, and the firing of over 20 consular section employees.  At the American Embassy in Doha, Qatar, DS agents initiated a highly complex visa fraud investigation, dubbed “Operation Eagle Strike,” that involved the illegal issuance of U.S. visas to over 70 unqualified applicants.  A possible terrorism connection of some of the known visa recipients prompted a manhunt by Diplomatic Security,  INS, and the FBI, resulting in the arrest of over 50 individuals in the United States and overseas.  In terms of visa fraud and border security, we believe these malfeasant employees pose a far greater threat to the integrity of the issuance process than any external operators. 

Currently, individuals convicted of visa fraud face maximum penalties from 10 years in prison as a first or second offense, up to 25 years if related to international terrorist activities.  Alexander Meerovich, a former Foreign Service officer, was convicted earlier this year of issuing approximately 100 U.S. visas illegally in exchange for payment while serving as a consular officer at the American Embassy in Prague.  He was sentenced to 24 months in prison, $5,000 dollars in fines and penalties, and 24 months supervised release.  We believe that while that was a good start, penalties such as these are insufficient to serve as a deterrent to internal fraud and corruption, and we are actively pursuing enhanced sentencing guidelines for both passport and visa fraud offenses.  Regardless of the results of those efforts, Diplomatic Security and Consular Affairs will continue to place great emphasis on rooting out internal corruption, and any allegation of employee malfeasance will be investigated aggressively and proactively.

But we won’t stop there.  In an effort to further increase our capabilities to expose employee corruption, DS is collaborating with Consular Affairs on the creation of a Vulnerability Assessment Unit. The unit is designed to improve the detection of internal fraud by analyzing consular databases for irregularities and possible fraud trends, and will refer suspected cases to Diplomatic Security agents for further investigation.  With the creation of this data-mining capability, we expect to be even better equipped to investigate internal corruption cases as the information will be more comprehensive and provided in a timelier fashion. 

We also participate on Consular Management Assistance Teams—an internal program administered by Consular Affairs that conducts comprehensive management reviews of consular operations overseas in an effort to identify potential problems and tighten internal controls.  In the last year alone, DS has participated in consular management reviews of diplomatic posts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Mexico.  Believing that an investigative presence lends even more credibility to internal consular reviews, DS will expand its involvement in the Consular Management Assistance Team program by accompanying our Consular Affairs colleagues on 10 to 12 trips next year. 

Finally, taking advantage of our unique overseas deployment capabilities, our security arm is able to reach out directly to the first line of border protection—the consular sections at our embassies and consulates around the world.  In the past few years, Diplomatic Security has deployed 25 agents overseas to high-fraud posts who are specifically dedicated to antifraud efforts and criminal investigations. We expect the number of agents deployed overseas to increase further by next summer and are already seeing very encouraging results from their efforts. 

In addition to these dedicated antifraud agents, our agents, located at American embassies and consulates worldwide, assist with visa and passport fraud investigations, establish and maintain critical contacts with authorities, and as I previously indicated, are responsible for the physical security of our missions, including official American personnel and their families. By working together with host government police and immigration officials, these agents, called regional security officers or RSOs when stationed overseas, will work to drive the illegal brokers from our consular sections and protect this first line of defense.  And our antifraud efforts will continue to shut down illegal passport and visa fraud rings and prevent illegitimate candidates from compromising our national security.  

In closing, homeland security and border protection have been placed at the forefront of our nation’s domestic war on terrorism.  It has received the lion’s share of public attention, both good and bad, as well as substantial increases in resources.  Like many of our fellow law enforcement agencies, we in DS have made great progress in effectively deploying those resources, but there is clearly more work to do. I assure you that Diplomatic Security will continue to employ every resource available to us to protect our borders from domestic and overseas threats, to thwart internal corruption, and to expose and repair vulnerabilities to our passport and visa issuance process. Our commitment, like yours, is to safeguard the people and interests of the United States, and we look forward to working with you to achieve that goal.

I’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have.  Thank you.

[Released September 15, 2003. Read Assistant Director McKeever's biography.]