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About Face: Biometric Push to Secure U.S. Borders

10Meters News Service

April 25, 2002 – It will take more than a piece of paper and a photograph to get into the U.S. after next year.

A new and tighter immigration bill passed unanimously (97-0) by the U.S. Senate will require all visitor documents to be "machine-readable" via biometric technologies, such as face recognition.

The security legislation is expected to be approved quickly by the House of Representatives. President Bush has promised to sign the bill, saying that "Improving our nation's border security is vital to protecting Americans from future terrorist attacks."

The bill offers wide-ranging security upgrades that would allow officials to more closely track foreign students and check passenger lists of planes flying into the United States.

Included in the legislation, which Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) said "will enhance our capacity to deter potential terrorists," is an additional $150 million to improve border security technology.

The bill requires issuance of machine-readable, tamper-resistant travel documents with biometric identifiers, and it requires that all U.S. ports of entry to have the equipment needed to read those documents.

Additionally, the bill requires that participants in the visa waiver program have passports that are machine-readable and tamper-resistant and include biometric identifiers.

Also included in the bill is a mandate to increase the number of Immigration and Naturalization Service employees and it requires consulates to electronically transmit visa applications so that immigration officials have the information at U.S. ports of entry before the alien arrives.

However, the fate of the INS itself is now under debate. On Wednesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft supported an INS breakup bill proposed by the House Judiciary Committee,

The overhaul would create two separate agencies: one to enforce laws and keep out unqualified people and another to address citizenship procedures for legal immigrants. The new agencies remain under Ashcroft's control at the Justice Department.

Copyright 2000-2002 10Meters.com
Biometric Spending Not a New Focus

U.S. government investment in face recognition technologies is not new.

According to a congressional study, federal spending on the technology has doubled over the past five years to more than $10 million.

Combined, the State, Justice, Energy and Defense departments spent a total of $10.7 million in fiscal 2001 for facial recognition R&D.

That's up from a combined total of $5.6 million in fiscal 1997.

The fiscal spending reported in the study, requested by House of Representatives Majority leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), does not reflect investments after the September 11 attacks.

Following the attacks, as reported by Reuters, the study concluded that "federal interest in biometrics technology, especially facial recognition technology as a security measure, appears to have increased."

ends Sept. 30.