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Visitors would be fingerprinted at airport security checkpoints, departure gates and terminal kiosks. (Washington Post photo) |
CAIRO – The Obama administration is finalizing a multi-million program to screen foreign visitors when leaving the US, sparking stiff opposition inside the country.
"A biometric exit system is critical to tracking the arrival and departure of foreign nationals -- not just through a paper trail, but through fingerprints, photographs, and other fraud-proof biometric identifiers," Senator Dianne Feinstein said in an e-mail statement cited by the Washington Post on Sunday, November 8.
The plan, drafted by the Department of Home Security, aims to fingerprint visitors at airport security checkpoints, departure gates and terminal kiosks.
The program, expected to take effect within two years, will be sent next month to the White House for a review and inclusion in the new budget.
Supporters say the plan would help officials identify the roughly 35 million visitors against security watch lists.
They also argue that this could help target foreigners who have violated immigration law.
The program marks the latest government effort to satisfy a 1996 mandate by Congress to automatically track foreign visitors into the US.
"It will be up to Congress to put its money where its mandate is," a senior Department of Home Security official said.
"The administration and Congress have to decide how they want to implement this in times of budget austerity."
Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has focused on screening inbound foreign visitors.
Opposition
But the screening program is meeting strong opposition from airlines over its high cost, estimated at between $1 billion and $2 billion over a decade.
"As far along as they are in the process, they haven't spoken a word to trade associations or any of our airlines," said Ken Dunlap, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, a trade group for 230 carriers.
In 2008, a similar program by the Bush administration met strong opposition from airlines.
Air carriers protested that they had not been consulted and should not bear the bulk of liability and cost, forcing the Congress to delay the plan until tests were completed this year.
To cut costs, officials are proposing not to implement the program at land borders, where nearly 80 percent of foreign visitors enter and exit the country.
But critics contend that the program would be futile in protecting the country or even tackling immigration violations.
"If you're doing this for immigration control purposes, how can you have a complete system without doing land borders," said Robert C. Bonner, the head of US Customs and Border Protection from 2003 to 2005.
"Other than Congressional pressure, the question is, why do this?"
Officials admit that the program would be of marginal benefit.
"This would add a level of certainty to the departures of one category of people who came into the US…in the air category," a senior official at the Department of Home Security said.
"It is a partial solution and it should never be seen as more than that."
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