12,000 Chicago airport employees' access cards deactivated

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Many Chicago airport employees' access cards deactivated Copyright APonline

By DON BABWIN, Associated Press

CHICAGO (October 19, 2001 8:51 p.m. EDT) - About 12,000 people will be denied access to secure areas at O'Hare International and Midway airports after they failed to renew their identification cards.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said Friday it deactivated the ID cards following a federally ordered evaluation of airport security. Some of the cards belonged to former employees and others to workers who didn't complete the revalidation process by Tuesday's deadline.

Aviation Department spokeswoman Monique Bond said they were trying to determine whether the 11,866 people who failed to go through the revalidation process had a legitimate reason for not complying. Police could be alerted about specific people depending on the results, she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration required the revalidation process at all airports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The issue has become important amid concerns that box cutters used in the hijackings might have been planted by people with access to the airplanes rather than brought aboard by the hijackers.

Bond said there is no indication of problems with Chicago employees and, given the massive cutbacks in the airline industry, she was not surprised by the number of cards deactivated. More than 35,000 employees of the two airports, airlines and contractors now have valid access cards to secure areas.

The FAA refused to say how many cards have been deactivated nationwide. A Denver airport spokesman said it deactivated 3,000 cards.

Chicago's numbers could be higher because they revalidated all airport workers, including restaurant employees, Bond said.

Current employees whose cards were deactivated must go through a criminal background check before their cards will be considered valid, Bond said

http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/147743p-1442436c.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 19, 2001

Answers

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/43423_airport19.shtml

Arrest of Sea-Tac worker raises questions Friday, October 19, 2001

By SAM SKOLNIK SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The arrest of a Sea-Tac Airport security screener on an immigration charge raises questions about whether the companies that hire such workers are conducting adequate background checks -- even after last month's terrorist attacks.

An Immigration and Naturalization Service audit of the local offices of one of those companies has found at least one illegal immigrant who had been working as a screener -- checking passengers and their baggage for weapons and other suspicious items -- since last summer.

The employee, Colombian native Regina Angulo-Barrios, was detained last week by INS agents. They say she overstayed a tourist visa and bought a fake green card in order to get hired. She was turned over to federal marshals and formally arrested yesterday.

Government officials now are concerned Angulo-Barrios isn't the only illegal immigrant to have slipped into sensitive airport jobs.

"What assurance do we have that the people they are hiring have the best interests of the country at heart?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Reno, who is prosecuting the Angulo-Barrios case.

In December 2000, Congress passed a law requiring all people seeking employment as airport screeners to be fingerprinted and undergo an FBI check. But current employees were grandfathered in, until their badges, good for three years, expired.

The federal government didn't close the loophole until two days ago, when Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey announced that criminal background checks will be made "on all airline and airport employees with access to secure areas."

Reno said an INS audit of the company Angulo-Barrios worked for, Huntleigh USA, had started before the attacks Sept. 11. "Interest in it magnified substantially," the prosecutor said, after terrorists crashed hijacked passenger jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Asked whether prosecutions of other airport employees are likely, Reno said: "There will be more to follow."

INS officials declined to comment on the continuing investigation.

In February 1999, Angulo-Barrios, 51, arrived in Miami from Colombia, according to court papers. A short time later, she moved to Seattle. While living here, prosecutors say she bought a fake green card through the mail from a California company.

On Aug. 18, while applying for the screener job, Angulo-Barrios showed her employer the bogus green card. She said she was a permanent resident and gave a false Social Security number, according to the criminal complaint.

The INS began auditing the local offices of Huntleigh and ICTS, a related company based in Amsterdam, on Oct. 10. Two days later, agents swooped in on Angulo-Barrios as she worked at her post in the North Terminal.

Angulo-Barrios, who faces deportation, is expected to plead guilty today in U.S. District Court to failing to register with the INS. Her attorney, federal public defender Tom Hillier, did not return calls yesterday.

No one is claiming Angulo-Barrios presented any national security risks.

But in the current climate, officials say criminal background checks are vital for airport screeners.

Screeners have come under intense scrutiny since the terrorist attacks, with National Guardsmen are looking over their shoulders at work, and Congress considering replacing them with a federal work force.

Bob Parker, spokesman for the Port of Seattle, said he was "uncomfortable" with the previous FAA policy that allowed the security companies to avoid doing criminal background checks on its employees.

"Certainly, there's a chance for a problem," Parker said. "There's an opportunity for things to happen that are inappropriate. Let's plug the holes."

Jessica Neal, a spokeswoman for St. Louis-based Huntleigh, called the Angulo-Barrios case "an isolated incident."

"The employee presented forged documents. Even the INS agents said that they couldn't have spotted the forgery. That's how good it was," Neal said yesterday.

But government officials say Huntleigh supervisors could have easily avoided the problem by calling a toll-free INS number that would have quickly confirmed Angulo-Barrios' immigration status.

INS officials will train company employees on how to check the immigration status of prospective employees, Neal said.

Neal also promised there will be no more embarrassments in the future. "All employee files have been audited and everything is up-to- date," she said.

Huntleigh employs about 500 people at the Seattle airport, about 300 of which are screeners.

The rest hold positions such as skycaps and wheelchair attendants.

© 1998-2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 19, 2001.


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