New Scans Start Soon at Border Crossings

Nov. 5, 2004
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Mexican nationals and other foreign visitors who require visas or passports to enter the United States soon will be fingerprinted and photographed at 50 of the busiest land ports of entry, including all but two of Arizona's border crossings.

The U.S. Visit and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program - US-VISIT - will go into effect Dec. 31 along the Mexican and Canadian borders to enhance security without restricting travel and trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Thursday at a Tucson meeting with the Arizona-Mexico Commission's Border Issues Committee.

P.T. Wright, a Customs and Border Protection executive director for U.S.-VISIT, said the program targets visitors traveling more than 30 days beyond 25 miles from the border, 75 miles if they enter through Arizona.

Mexican border-crossers who make quick trips using their so-called laser visas won't be affected, Wright said, although they may in the future.

Also exempted are children under 14 and people older than 79, as well as Canadian citizens who can travel in the country without a visa or passport.

Wright said the technology, which will first be tested in Douglas starting in mid-November, is not expected to add delays at the border.

Officials said a radio and print campaign will publicize the program on the Mexican side of the border.

"There's not a new hurdle that you have to go through when you arrive in the U.S.," he said.

US-VISIT, which has stirred controversy since its announcement, started operating in January at seaports and airports, including Tucson International Airport.

Of the land ports of entry in Arizona, only Naco and Sasabe will wait until sometime next year to start using the technology, Wright said.

The technology will allow border inspectors to gather personal data on foreigners more quickly, he said. That data will be matched against law-enforcement databases to weed out criminals and terrorist suspects.

Wright said the privacy of individuals would be carefully guarded and data shared only with agencies on a "need-to-know basis."

Kim Nivera, a supervisory program analyst for US-VISIT, demonstrated the technology and said the digital, inkless finger scans and photographs would add only 15 seconds to the inspection process that border-crossers with visas and passports already go through.

Forms that visitors until now have had to fill out manually also will be computerized, she added, which will streamline the process.

US-VISIT is a sign of the times, said Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi, director of the regional-development program in the University of Arizona's Office of Economic Development.

"There is no choice," she said after the meeting. "It's new technology and questions of security.

"We just have to make sure we don't go overboard on individuals' privacy. We need to make sure that their information is not misused."

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