SPOKANE – The Department of Homeland Security has expanded its program for electronically reading the faces and fingerprints of international visitors who try to enter the United States to seven border crossings in Eastern Washington and Idaho, the agency said Thursday.
The US-VISIT program uses optical and digital scanners to log and identify travelers who need a passport and visa to enter the United States.
The program has been used at the 50 busiest land border ports of entry – including Blaine – since Dec. 29, 2004, and was also in place at 115 airports and 15 seaports.
This week it became operational at remote border crossings in the Inland Northwest. Those ports of entry are Porthill, Idaho, plus Danville, Laurier, Frontier, Boundary, Metaline Falls and Ferry in Eastern Washington.
“This does not apply to U.S. citizens or Canadian citizens,” said Mike Milne, a Homeland Security spokesman in Seattle.
The agency said the new technology will help relieve congestion at border crossings, while helping authorities weed out potential terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals.
The program applies to all visitors who apply for entry with a nonimmigrant visa, including those using a Border Crossing Card to travel beyond the border zone or for more than 30 days, or under the Visa Waiver program.
Border Protection officers will collect digital, inkless finger scans and take a digital photo of the visitor. The information will be matched with databases to determine whether visitors are wanted for immigration problems or crimes or are on lists barring them from entering the country because of suspected terrorist ties.
The information will be stored, and if that person seeks to enter the United States again at a later date, can be called up for quicker processing, Milne said.
Extra security requirements were passed by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, or US-VISIT, will be in place at all 165 land border crossings by the end of the year.
More than 40 million visitors have already been processed through US-VISIT, and more than 880 criminals or immigration violators have been denied admission to the United States, the agency said.
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