White House wants foreign travelers fingerprinted

Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau ^ | April 22, 2008 | STEWART M. POWELL

[SwinneySwitch]

Industry official says ticket counter can't substitute for the Border Patrol

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration announced plans on Tuesday to require the nation's airlines and cruise ship operators to collect digital fingerprints of all foreign visitors on departure, contending that as many as 1 million remain unaccounted for in the U.S. each year.

The trade association for the country's hard-pressed airlines balked at the proposed rules announced by the Homeland Security Department, declaring that border protection is a function of government — not industry.

Congress has been pushing the administration to close a security gap and implement the identification enhancements, which are designed to enable federal officials to confirm the foreigners' departure.

Most of the untracked foreign visitors enter and leave the United States through international airports, such as George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Both airlines and cruise ship operators are now required to provide biographical information on international passengers before they leave the country. But the new rules would require biometric information such as digital fingerprints, which are non-ink fingerprints stored in a database. Biometrics also include retina scans and other ways to uniquely identify people beyond fingerprints.

The new requirement, the department said, would cost the airline industry an estimated $2.7 billion over the next 10 years to carry out the mandate once it is implemented by January after a discussion period.

The airlines' trade group said the rule would force them to pay for collecting biometric identification for 33 million departing foreign citizens.

"Border protection and immigration are government responsibilities," said Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association, which represents 240 airlines handling most scheduled international traffic.

"Airline counter staff are not a substitute for trained Border Patrol officers. And outsourcing exit formalities to airlines is not a responsible approach," Bisignani said.

Houston-based Continental Airlines declined to comment, referring requests to the association.

A total of 3.8 million passengers arrived aboard international flights at Bush Intercontinental in 2007, the Houston Airport System reported, while 3.9 million departed for international destinations. The largest group of international passengers — 1.5 million — arrived from Mexico. Another 1.1 million flew from Central and South America and 744,729 passengers came from Europe.

Nearly 100 million non-U.S. citizens arriving in the United States have provided digital photographs or fingerprints to airline officials since 2004.

The Bush administration has bristled at the business community's continuing resistance to the mandates.

"We have to decide who is going to win this fight," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. "Is it going to be the airline industry or is it going to be the people who believe we should know who leaves the country by air?"

Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary at the department, predicted the airlines will eventually comply to avoid facing fines of up to $1,000 per day for each passenger who leaves without providing biometric identification information.

"The airlines are not going to refuse to comply," he said. "They may work pretty hard to shift the cost or avoid having the rule take effect, but it is hard to imagine that they will not comply."

Congress required the Homeland Security Department to make the change by June 30, 2009, or risk losing the authority to expand the Visa Waiver Program that permits residents of 27 countries to visit the United States without a visa. Nations that stand to lose visa-free access include several in Eastern Europe and possibly South Korea, officials said.

stewart.powell@chron.com

[SwinneySwitch]

"...collect digital fingerprints of all foreign visitors on departure, contending that as many as 1 million remain unaccounted for in the U.S. each year."

We sure don't know how many are coming in.

[KantianBurke]

And yet sealing off the southern border is verboten. What a disgrace.

[HoosierHawk]

We sure don't know how many are coming in.

Exactly.

Congress has been pushing the administration to close a security gap and implement the identification enhancements, which are designed to enable federal officials to confirm the foreigners' departure.

So let's expend time and money to check them as they leave? It makes no sense.

[AuntB]

I’m still stunned to find out that we never had any method of keeping track of these ‘visitors’. It boggles the mind.

Get me some of those collars like they have in sci fi movies. Slap one on when they come in. If they don’t leave and turn in the collar when they’re supposed to...Poof!!

Problem over. :<)

[Aglooka]

Meanwhile the invasion by illegals continues.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

The author did a poor job writing this article. He does not get to the main point of the issue at hand until the last sentence of the article. That is:

Congress required the Homeland Security Department to make the change by June 30, 2009, or risk losing the authority to expand the Visa Waiver Program that permits residents of 27 countries to visit the United States without a visa. Nations that stand to lose visa-free access include several in Eastern Europe and possibly South Korea, officials said.

Further, I'd like for the author to name the several Eastern European countries that have visa-free access to the US.

[SwinneySwitch]

Poorly written. These are countries that will NOT be on an expanded list.

Most older EU states are part of the visa-free program. Greece and most of the 12 mainly ex-communist nations who have joined the EU since 2004 aren’t.

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is wrong because...?

[HiJinx]

Ping!

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Does this plan include matching the fingerprints against the fingerprints of those leaving, so they they can begin to understand how many overstay their visas, and maybe even crack down on the visa scofflaws? Or will they only look for terrorists?

And what about the visitors who enter by land or boat?

[bcsco]

This is a ping list promoting Immigration Enforcement and Congressional Reform.
If you wish to be added or removed from this ping list, please contact me.

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[Paige]

Build the WALL!!! Building the wall will cost less!

[SwinneySwitch]

Most illegals aren't fingerprinted coming or going.

The airlines already have ink prints on airline passengers but DC wants digital.

[Marine Inspector]

I’m still stunned to find out that we never had any method of keeping track of these ‘visitors’.

We've had a way of tracking them for decades, we just don't use it.

[AuntB]

Well, that makes sense, MI, sad, pathetic sense...