US to fingerprint, photograph non-European Visitors

The photos and fingerprints will be required only of visitors with visas.

Citizens from 27 countries, mostly in Europe, who enter for tourism or business for short periods without a visa are exempt, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, or US-VISIT.

Beginning January 5, immigration officials at all US international airports will vet visitors' passports and visas and pose the usual questions -- before taking their fingerprints and photographs.

This is phase one of US-VISIT, a 380-million-dollar effort to track down terrorists.

By 2005, every port of entry on land, sea and air will have the photographic and fingerprinting technology.

All US visas and passports will eventually include photos and fingerprints -- called "biometric identifiers."

The programme takes effect after the United States raised its terror alert to its next-to-highest level in December.

Intelligence indicated that al-Qaeda was planning to hijack airliners for a repeat of its September 11 attacks, in which 3,000 people were killed.

The United States placed armed police on some airliners and in December said it may require foreign airliners in US airspace to do the same.

Inkless fingerprints and digital photos will add 10 to 15 seconds to the entry interview, which now takes 60 to 90 seconds, Kimberly Weissman, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, told AFP.

"We will be monitoring (this) to be sure it doesn't add to wait times," she said.

If it causes backups, it will be up to each of the 115 US international airports to solve.

"We've been supporting this change. We think it's a cleaner process," Ralph Tragale told AFP.

Tragale is a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Newark and John F. Kennedy international airports serving New York and owns the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Those attacks accelerated US plans already in the works to revamp its system of tracking immigrants, after it was discovered that some of the hijackers entered the United States legally but overstayed their visas.

Until now, there was no way of knowing when visitors left and whether they left legally.

To that end, US-VISIT will set up self-service kiosks at all US airports.

There, visitors will "check out" of the country before stepping on the plane.

Visitors overstaying their visas may not be let back in.

Two September 11 hijackers entered as students but never went to class.

US-VISIT will close that loophole by notifying schools that their students have landed and can be expected to show up soon.

Civil libertarians and immigrants said the biometric identification system may be an invasion of privacy.

"It doesn't seem likely that we're going to catch any bad guys through this program, but it is likely that a lot of immigrants are going to get caught up in the bureaucracy," Michele Waslin, a spokeswoman for La Raza, an advocacy group for US Latinos, told AFP.

"It does appear to be a step toward creating a national registry," Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, told AFP. "It is a tool for creating a surveillance society."

Steinhardt wondered if other countries might reciprocate.

However, France and Germany are already planning to fingerprint visa applicants.

And on Saturday, Brazil began fingerprinting and photographing all US citizens entering the country.

Later in 2004, the 27 visa-waiver countries must begin issuing machine-readable biometric passports.

US-VISIT will be used at the largest land ports of entry by the end of 2004.

All US ports of entry must install the technology by December 31, 2005. - AFP

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/64722/1/.html