Terror Recommendations # 16 The Department of Homeland Security, properly supported by the Congress, should complete, as quickly as possible, a biometric entry-exit screening system, including a single system for speeding qualified travelers. It should be integrated with the system that provides benefits to foreigners seeking to stay in the United States.

This particular recommendation has failed miserably since the time of its suggestion by the 9/11 commission. Immigration into the United States goes largely unchecked, much less checked by any type of biometric screening system. Although this appears to be a failure of massive proportion, it does not seem to be too impactful as history has proven us.

While the borders of the United States are too wide and expansive too have any real deterrent to keep people out, a biometric entry system would not have much good if these entry points were monitored. The development of big data, and the massiveness that this technology has afforded criminal justice profession, has created new problems of managing this data. Simply having biological information on people leaving and entering the borders does not, in most cases provide any sort of actionable intelligence, and as a result trillions of bytes of data are being uselessly collected and stored.

If this system was designed to give preference...

Illegal immigration is the best, and most expedient method of entering this country as the last decades have shown us.
#25 Homeland security assistance should be based strictly on an assessment of risks and vulnerabilities. Now, in 2004, Washington, D.C., and New York City are certainly at the top of any such list. We understand the contention that every state and city needs to have some minimum infrastructure for emergency response. But federal homeland security assistance should not remain a program for general revenue sharing. It should supplement state and local resources based on the risks or vulnerabilities that merit additional support. Congress should not use this money as a pork barrel.

When the recommendation about keeping the financial aspects of distributing resources to those areas where they are most needed has shown some relative success since the time of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. Both New York City and Washington D.C. continue to be hotbeds of potential terrorist action and many resources have been dedicated to this area.

While some of the qualities of this recommendation have been aligned with policy and practice, most of this tenet's principle's have been ignored and disregarded as important…