Biometric borders coming

Washington Times ^ | 10/28/03 | Shaun Waterman

[kattracks]

Officials will roll out ambitious new technology today to track visitors to the United States as they enter and leave the country, and eventually verify their identity with electronic scanners that will check fingerprints and other biometric data.

Together with machine-readable, tamper-proof visas and a huge computer database of names, fingerprints and photographs, the Department of Homeland Security hopes to be able to check the identity

[GeronL]

won't be long afterwards when they use it on us

[agitator]

Coming soon to a DMV near you!

[Fred Mertz]

The applicant places a finger on the window, and a digital image of their print is captured. The print is then stored, along with his or her photograph and the other application information, in the Consular Consolidated Database.

Why don't they just tattoo their forearm with some sort of ink that disappears after six months? Or they could staple a chip to their left ear lobe.

[GluteusMax]

won't be long afterwards when they use it on us

Wanna bet it goes live for EVERYONE entering and exiting the country, not just for foreigners next year? I went on a cruise last year and they scanned my face and fingerprints into the ship-issued pass to get on and off the ship. Not much of a stretch to make that a government checkpoint instead of a commercial venture.

[what's up]

Invest in Identix (IDNX)

[GeronL]

I think your probably right about that

[GeronL]

Liberalism is a Quagmire!!

[dagnabbit]

"It's an aggressive deployment schedule," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice L. Jacobs said, although she added that she expects the schedule to be met because the State Department has used the technology since April 1998 to issue border-crossing cards to Mexican citizens.

Too bad the INS, now DHS, has never bothered to deploy machines to actually read the cards produced by the State dept. These cards are one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on taxpayers.

[Drammach]

Almost impossible to scan all 40 as they run the checkpoint in that big produce truck..

Maybe after the CHP catches them.. some of them.. a few of them.?

[dirtboy]

won't be long afterwards when they use it on us

That's the only way IMO it could work. Let's say we get biometrics on all people legally entering the country. However, we already have so many illegals that anyone subsequently entering the country illegally can just blend in, and the only way to differentiate them from legal naturalized citizens would be to get biometrics on EVERYONE - so that the only folks who stand out are the illegals. This is the downside of trying to remove the illegals in this country through an identification process - it will only be effective if everyone is included.

[GluteusMax]

This is the downside of trying to remove the illegals in this country through an identification process - it will only be effective if everyone is included.

Which is exactly the point. Allow illegals to stream in until middle class Joe feels threatened enough to BEG for biometrics to "solve" the problem. They won't have to force this on the sheeple, they'll ask for it.

[Prodigal Son]

Spielberg's Minority Report looks a little more plausible. (not the precogs but all the security checkpoints).

[Prodigal Son]

Wanna bet it goes live for EVERYONE entering and exiting the country, not just for foreigners next year?

Yep.