Immigrant’s job survives ordeal intact
It seems Vietnam veteran Andres Barrera isn’t a threat to national security after all.
After several days of frustration for Barrera, a 67-year-old truck driver, the Transportation Security Administration has determined he can haul hazardous materials without posing a security risk.
“I think that was proven already,” Barrera said Friday, laughing about the tribulations of the past week.
Under a provision of the 2001 Patriot Act — passed after the Sept. 11 attacks to protect the nation from terrorists — truckers who haul hazardous materials must pass background checks and prove their citizenship or legal residence here. The TSA must verify they are U.S. citizens or legal residents.
Barrera was born in Mexico, but he has been a U.S. citizen since 1975 and a truck driver for 20 years. He served two tours in Vietnam and has no criminal record.
In his application for the hazmat endorsement, a stamp on a commercial driver’s license, he wrote that he was born in Mexico and provided the number of his naturalization certificate.
But in a letter he received June 8, the TSA said it was denying his hazmat endorsement, because the agency had been unable to verify his immigration status.
Without the hazmat stamp, he faced losing his job, or at least a pay cut of several hundred dollars a week. After his daughter called the office of Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and a story about Barrera’s plight ran in Sunday’s Gazette, his application got swift attention.
TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon confirmed the initial determination that Barrera might be a threat has been reversed. She would not say why the TSA was unable to verify his citizenship.
“We are required to complete a security assessment, and in order to do that, we have to be able to verify identification and legal status,” Harmon said. “We made every effort to process his application based on the information we received before we contacted him.”
Barrera said he was told his naturalization number was misread by agency officials. Harmon would not comment.
“We all make mistakes, but the result was fantastic,” Barrera said.
He went to the Department of Motor Vehicles office Thursday and got his hazmat endorsement in about 15 minutes. He credited the publicity around his case and the involvement of Allard’s office, with helping him get back on the road.
“I guess free speech is not dead yet,” he said.
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Truck driver who was granted a stamp allowing him to haul hazardous materials
