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 News from Around the Americas | October 2007 
US Senators Want Full Story on Man with TB
 Eileen Sullivan - Associated Press
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| | A cow grazes at sunset in Leicestershire, central England October 23, 2007. Badgers need to be culled to tackle tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser said othis week, in a reversal of the existing official position. (Reuters/Darren Staples) |
Washington - Federal officials have provided conflicting accounts for why a Mexican man with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was able to cross the border into the U.S. multiple times this spring, two senators said Wednesday.
Last week, Homeland Security Department officials said the man was able to evade Customs authorities because U.S. officials were not provided with his real name. But Tuesday night, the department told Senate aides that the Mexican man used his middle and two last names and a transposed birth date.
"I have absolutely no confidence that we have gotten all of the facts yet, nor that DHS has a good handle on how this could occur," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in an interview.
"That sounds significant alarm bells in terms of our confidence that this system can help us detect and disrupt the travel of those who would do us harm deliberately."
Collins and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, want an investigation into that incident and one in April, when an Atlanta man with tuberculosis flew to Europe despite warnings from public health officials not to travel.
Lieberman heads the Senate Homeland Security Committee; Collins is the top Republican.
During an unrelated hearing Wednesday, the senators raised the issue of the varying accounts about the Mexican man.
"What is perplexing is that the government had his name," Lieberman said. He said Customs officials should have stopped every person who had one of the two names provided to officials. "We are not satisfied. We don't want this to happen again," Lieberman said.
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Michael Friel denied that the government's story has changed.
"We have worked to be responsive and provide information regarding this case to members of Congress who have expressed their concern," Friel said.
Information the agency was provided on April 16 was incomplete and inaccurate and did not allow correct identification of the Mexican man with the disease, he said. Friel said the department did not receive the accurate information until May 31.
Frustrated by the conflicting accounts, Collins said the bottom line remains the same: "DHS had significant identifying information about this man, and yet he was able to cross the border over and over again without being detained."
"If the system is not successful in picking up an individual who poses a serious public health threat over and over and over again — not once, not twice, but more than 20 times — what does it say about the efficacy of that system to pick up a determined and clever terrorist," Collins said. "It's worrisome." |
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