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TB case prompts new US border safety protocol

06 Jun 2007 18:19:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - New procedures have been put into place at U.S. borders to stop flagged travelers such as the tuberculosis patient who sneaked across the Canadian border last month, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The decision to let 31-year-old Andrew Speaker into the United States appears to have been the mistake of a single U.S. agent, they told a meeting of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.

"We have initiated new processes at our ports of entry that would not have allowed that ... to occur again," Ralph Basham, commissioner for Customs and Border Protection at the Department of Homeland Security, told the committee.

"This was a very clear disregard for very clear orders. He (the agent) failed to follow instructions. We are taking appropriate action on that individual," Basham added.

The Homeland Security Department said a flag was placed on Speaker's passport after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave notification that Speaker was traveling against orders. The flag was correctly activated when Speaker crossed into New York from Canada.

But for some reason the agent allowed Speaker to proceed.

"We have built in additional safeguards on our ports of entry that would prevent that individual from being able to make that decision independently," Basham said. "They don't have that option." He did not give details about what those systems were.

Speaker sparked an international investigation and a flurry of congressional inquiries when he decided to flee last month rather than submit to orders to stay in place in Italy once CDC experts determined he had a very dangerous form of tuberculosis called extensively drug resistant TB.

He admitted he changed his flight reservations to go to Montreal from Prague, and then drove across the U.S. border.

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Last updated:Wed Jun 6 18:21:14 2007