This is not surprising.

When I worked for the Illinois Secretary of State during summers home from college, every once in awhile someone would come in complaining (and crying) that we sent a letter to their dead spouse.

Looking at all the dead people that voted this past election (in WA, WI, and PA), we seem to have a problem with keeping track of people in this country.

I am in favor of a national ID system, but not until we can fix our processes for tracking changes.

The private sector has it right. If you owe money, they'll find you right away. If you are reported dead, all your banks and creditors know right away. The government just can't seem to do it.

Here is one that's even more egegious. Happened three years ago (March 12, 2002).

6 months after 9/11, the colorful president of Huffman Aviation in Venice FL, Rudi Dekkers, received student visa approval notices for Mohammed Atta and Alwah al-Shehhi, both 9/11 terrorist pilots. They had taken their flight training at Huffman. Sensing an opportunity to embarrass the agency that had unfairly skewered him earlier, Dekkers first called the local TV stations. Then he called INS to alert them he had just received the unusual student visa approvals. The TV crews had arrived and were ready when the INS officials swooped in to seize the offending documents and make the event unhappen. Of course, Dekkers had the foresight to make copies of the letters for the TV crews. The footage was a classic Keystone Kops comedy.

INS, now USCIS, a division of Homeland Security, has always been the domain of political hacks. James Ziglar, Commissioner of INS at the time of 9/11, got his appointment in 2001 after the Republicans lost their majority in the Senate. Ziglar had been the Sergeant at Arms and Doorman of the Senate, a consumate political hack position. He needed a job. What better place than INS?

But both parties are guilty here, because both parties want lax enforcement of our southern border, Democrats because illegal Mexicans vote heavily and often for them and Republicans because many of their constituents want access to cheap labor. There is no viable constituency for strict enforcement.

We will continue to have dead folks getting green cards and dead terrorists being granted student visas as long as we encourage ineptness.

Corky Boyd
Sanibel FL

Irony duly noted.

Another bit of irony, not so clearly noted, is that those who complain about the government's inability to track individuals are often the same who get really, really annoyed when the government proposes programs to track individuals.

Whether it's a matter of "having one's cake, etc." or simply cognitive dissonance, there's something terribly contradictory going on here. It makes my head hurt.