New locations added to visitor tracking program
Foreign visitors leaving the United States will be required to comply with new biometric exit procedures at 13 new locations, as directed by the Homeland Security Department.
The U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator System, or US-VISIT, pilot program will expand from two to 15 airports and seaports by September 2004. Airports in Atlanta; Dallas; Detroit; Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia and Seattle are among the select group.
Visitors will be required to check out at an automated exit kiosk or with an exit attendant at the gate, at which point the visitor's two index fingers will be digitally scanned and provided with a printed receipt of check out.
The program was launched in January 2004, with biometric entry capabilities deployed at 115 airports and 14 seaports, according to the department. Millions of foreign visitors have been processed under the new system.
COMMENTS
- In line with the Bush policy on imported steel maybe we should keep all foreigners out of the country! That way we could save all the money spend on screening and tracking them! Another alternative (Bush calls it amnesty) is to make all foreigners citizens and then we do not need to track them. doesn't all this sound a little stupid - but it is what they are doing for political purposes - not effectiveness. tax payer Posted August 12, 2004 7:31 AM
- And our good neighbor policies continue. So now I can expect to be fingerprinted and hassled when I travel overseas and leave other countries because what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. And all the nations of the World can keep upping these policies until nobody travels anywhere. ok- we fingerprint every visitor leaving the US at every checkpoint. I guess the security folks at DHS think this is prudent. I wonder what's next???? And to my good friends in Canada who come in to buy groceries and toiletries and gasoline and who now will be fingerprinted everytime they need a carton of milk from the grocery over the border- So Sorry. The Ugly American GovExec.com reader Posted August 4, 2004 8:22 AM
