Security and Immigration - Fingerprint Everyone Coming and GOING

Plan to Fingerprint Foreigners Exiting U.S. Is Opposed

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 22, 2008; A08

The airline industry and embassies of 34 countries, including the members of the European Union, are urging the U.S. government to withdraw a plan that would require airlines and cruise lines to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the United States, starting in August 2009.

Their opposition could trigger a battle with Congress and the Bush administration, which want the new plan established quickly.

Airlines said the change would cost the industry $12.3 billion over 10 years, not $3.5 billion as the Department of Homeland Security estimated in unveiling the proposal in April.

Representatives of the nations affected said it is the duty of the U.S. government, not private companies, to enforce immigration and border security laws, and they raised privacy concerns about companies collecting fingerprints.

"This proposal to outsource the core government function of border control at a time that airlines around the world are fighting for their economic survival is both unwarranted and counterproductive," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association.

The plan to track exiting foreign visitors is part of a program known as US-VISIT, an initiative that Congress first promoted in 1996 and launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to use fingerprints and digital photographs to automate the processing of visitors entering and exiting the country. For security reasons, U.S. officials have put a priority on identifying incoming visitors. Setting up systems to record exits is much more costly but still can help enforce immigration laws and track security risks.

This year, 24 foreign carriers and about eight U.S. carriers have halted operations, gone out of business or sought bankruptcy protection. The carriers stand to lose $6.1 billion this year if the price of oil remains at $135 a barrel, Bisignani said in a letter Thursday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The alliance, whose 230 members include 78 that fly to and from the United States, said airlines and passengers have spent $30 billion for often duplicative and bureaucratic security measures since 9/11.

"This uncoordinated and costly mess can no longer be dismissed as simply 'the cost of doing business,' " Bisignani said. He called on DHS to integrate and streamline five passenger-data-collection programs that include reservation system data, passenger manifest information and immigration and customs forms.

[The remainder of the article is available by clicking the article title above]


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A couple things - I am sure someone could explain why I care whether they leave or not. We have 12 million illegals, primarily from south of our border, and this would not impact that number in any way. So we are monitoring Euros and everyone else, just not the Mexicans and others who cross the border from the South. Odd.

The other point to consider in this article is that this plan as not something Bush dreamed up. It had been promoted back in 1996 and sidelined by the Republican congress. It seems party affiliation and events in 2001 brought this issue back - and unfortunately, it will not go away even if an Obamessiah were to win. They would call it something different 'Visitor Enhancement Tools - Where we send the thank you card to, for visiting' - and the Obamakins would honestly believe it was different.










Euros


Spying


Fingerprints


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