Posted on 01/03/2004 6:03:48 PM PST by fatso
Key immigration tracking system coming to SFO Foreigners entering country will have to take photo, give fingerprints
San Francisco International Airport will on Monday become one of 115 airports with a new system to electronically verify the identity of foreign tourists and track their whereabouts.
Called US-VISIT, the system is a cornerstone of the Homeland Security Department's effort to prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and is a direct response to the sharpest criticism about why they happened.
Almost immediately after the attacks, the nation's immigration officials were peppered with questions about how they let terrorists onto U.S. soil.
Immigration officials at ports, airports and borders will now require every foreigner with a visa entering the country to go through a 15-second process similar to the final step in getting a driver's license. Immigration agents will take their digital photo and scan electronic fingerprints into a government computer database.
That will be checked against passenger data from airlines or cruise ships and government watchlists. If a visitor matches one of those lists or the name on the visa doesn't match other data, the traveler would face additional questions, bag searches or be denied entry and deported.
One lesson from the attacks was that some of the 19 terrorists enrolled in flight schools and others got into the country posing as foreign exchange students. One of those was Hani Hanjour, who was enrolled in English language classes in Oakland. He never showed until he commandeered the jet that crashed into the Pentagon.
Starting Monday, student immigration data at airports will be sent to schools to let them know their student should be arriving within 30 days.
"Everything we're doing in this area is to make the country safer, and we're making strides. Is it 100 percent foolproof? Absolutely not. We would never make that claim," said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Milne.
The soft underbelly of US-VISIT, which stands for United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, is the open border treaties between the United States and its closest allies. Most people entering the country from western Europe, Mexico and Canada do not need a visa.
If a terrorist could effectively sneak into one of these countries and then convincingly lie to a U.S. immigration agent that he's a citizen from one of those countries here on a tourist visit, he wouldn't be stopped at SFO.
Nor would a terrorist who buys a fake U.S. passport, because U.S. citizens will not be screened by the new technology.
But airports such as SFO are the last line of defense in a US-VISIT system that stretches back to foreign airports and U.S. embassies.
"The same data will be checked before we even issue them a visa," Milne said. "When they get here, US-VISIT is a double-check, a positive ID."
Monday's roll-out is the first phase of an evolving program. By the end of the year, international airports will install kiosks near departure gates, where tourists will automatically submit their inkless fingerprints and scans of their passports.
This will let immigration officials know when people leave the country, so that they can track those who overstay their visas. The 9-11 hijackers melted into society after they arrived.
People who fail to comply with the future exit system may be denied entry if they return to the United States.
Another future phase of US-VISIT will likely involve biometric identification, with which computers would pinpoint the identity of foreigners by analyzing unique retinal patterns or facial geometry. The digital photos are for now just that, says Milne, recognizing that a huge registry of images could be used to build a biometric library.
Government tests in March, using the same kind of photos from the Mexican border, showed that the best facial recognition system could only match the correct names and faces 85 percent of the time under ideal conditions.
The bigger the pool, the harder the job, according to the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency study. Based on DARPA's findings, the best system could only pick out 63 percent of Californians.
"Biometrics is not part of the system yet. If they develop a system that's reliable, this creates the possibility to use it later," Milne said.
Already, early tests of US-VISIT at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport yielded promising results, authorities said. The system pinpointed people on watchlists, which led to law enforcement actions, though none included suspected terrorists.
I've got a better idea--when they come in, strap a radio-locater transmitter to their ankle. Take it off when they leave.
"We have the technology"
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