The Department of Homeland Security met a year’s end
congressional deadline by installing biometric screening
capabilities at 104 land border ports, and has now deployed
the technology at all fixed entry ports open to US-VISIT
travelers.
The program collects biometric and biographic information
from visitors at U.S. visa-issuing posts upon arrival and
departure from U.S. air, sea and land border ports, and
verifies identity by cross checking information against
lists of suspected terrorists, criminals, and immigration
violators, according to DHS.
The homeland security department said that since January
2004 it has processed more than 44 million visitors and
intercepted more than 970 people with histories of criminal
or immigration violations, including federal penitentiary
escapees, convicted rapists, drug traffickers, individuals
convicted of murder, and numerous immigration violators.
