Seaport workers will undergo background checks for links to terrorism and to ensure they are legal U.S. residents, the Bush administration said Tuesday. The heightened scrutiny _ which will begin immediately _ drew praise from some lawmakers and port associations that said the checks were long overdue. Others jeered the security measures as either too weak or too invasive of workers' privacy rights.Names of an estimated 400,000 employees who work in the most sensitive areas of ports will be matched against government terror watch lists and immigration databases, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. They will be among roughly 750,000 workers _ including truckers and rail employees _ who have unrestricted access to ports and will be required to carry tamper-resistant identification cards by next year. "What this will do is it will elevate security at our ports themselves so that we can be sure that those who enter our ports to do business come for legitimate reasons and not in order to do us harm," Chertoff said. He called the safeguards part of a "ring of security" around U.S. ports.
The background checks will not examine workers' criminal history, although Chertoff left open that possibility for the future. How much the background checks will cost was not immediately available.
The Bush administration has been under fire for months for what critics call holes in security measures at ports, which were highlighted after a Dubai company's purchase of a British firm gave it control of six American ports. An outcry in Congress led the Dubai company, DP World, to decide to sell the U.S. operations to an American firm.
Congress is considering port security legislation this week, prompting some
| Which you called for years ago during the Clinton administration, right? |
Cargo industry officials have worried that a federal ID system aimed at boosting security could cost many port workers their jobs _ leading to bottlenecks in the flow of goods destined for virtually every U.S. community. "It seems to us that the biggest security threat is coming from the outside, and not from the workers who live and work in those communities," said Steve
The added scrutiny "looks a lot like harassment of the workers," Stallone said. Because some truck drivers are illegal immigrants who would quit rather than face identity checks, that could "seriously cripple" major ports, he said.
| Reeeeeally? We couldn't possibly hire legal workers to drive trucks? |
| Which will put 90% of the New Joisey |
Since the DP World furor, Democrats have lambasted Homeland Security for failing to screen and inspect all cargo that enters the United States at seaports. Senate Democrats are pushing legislation to require Homeland Security to outline how it will scan all cargo containers within five years. The department currently inspects 6 percent of cargo containers that enter U.S. ports. Homeland Security treats port security like a "neglected stepchild," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
| And Chuckie would know about being neglected .... |