FOREIGNERS FINGERPRINTED; BIOMETRIC PUSH BEGINS

Since 9/​11, gov­ern­ment offi­cials have promised that bio­met­rics would be used to tighten bor­der secu­rity — to con­firm that trav­el­ers are who they say they are. That process begins in earnest this week, when for­eign­ers enter­ing the U.S. by sea and by air will have their fin­ger­prints scanned and their pho­tographs taken as they pass through cus­toms.
All 115 U.S. air­ports that han­dle inter­na­tional flights and 14 major sea­ports are cov­ered by the pro­gram, called US-​​VISIT (short for “U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology”).
US-​​VISIT will “check an esti­mated 24 mil­lion for­eign­ers each year,” accord­ing to the Associated Press. “The only excep­tions will be vis­i­tors from 28 coun­tries — mostly European nations whose cit­i­zens are allowed to come to the United States for up to 90 days with­out visas.“
“Inkless fin­ger­prints will be taken and checked instantly against a national dig­i­tal data­base for crim­i­nal back­grounds and any ter­ror­ist lists,” the AP notes. “Photographs will be used to help cre­ate a data­base for law enforce­ment. The travel data is sup­posed to be securely stored and made avail­able only to autho­rized offi­cials on a need-​​to-​​know basis. “
By October, cit­i­zens from America’s clos­est allies are sup­posed to have new pass­ports embed­ded with bio­met­ric data. But the pro­gram is behind sched­ule, the tech­nolo­gies are still some­what sus­pect, and the require­ment is likely to be delayed.
THERE’S MORE: According to the New York Times, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge “said that a test-​​run of the pro­gram in Atlanta… screened 20,000 trav­el­ers, yield­ing ’21 hits’ on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crim­i­nal watch list, includ­ing peo­ple with prior con­vic­tions of statu­tory rape, drugs and visa fraud.”

January 5th, 2004 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.