Lloyd Williams, Senior
Associate Editor
THE UNITED States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) upgraded its immigration procedures at 115 airports and 14 cruise ship terminals on Monday, requiring most visitors travelling on visas to have two fingers scanned by an inkless device and a digital photograph taken by immigration officials upon entry to the United States.
DHS officials hailed the implementation of the new procedures as a success.
The new, inkless digital "fingerscanner" is easy to use, the DHS states. Visitors with visas must first put the left index finger, then the right index finger on a glass plate that will electronically capture two fingerscans.
The first day of the US-VISIT programme implementation also marked the beginning of a pilot programme in exit procedures. According to DHS, a departure confirmation programme using automated kiosks is being tested at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and at selected Miami Seaport cruise line terminals. US-VISIT officials will evaluate and consider other alternatives including hand-held devices for departure confirmation throughout 2004, the DHS states.
Most Jamaicans seem to have taken US-VISIT in their stride, accepting it as a done deal, which will enhance their security while visiting the U.S.A., but some have been arguing that fingerprinting should be confined to crime suspects only.
Brazil has retaliated, having begun fingerprinting and photographing US visitors on the orders of a judge, after a Government citizens rights agency there filed a complaint in federal court over the American measure. The Associated Press news agency reported that the Brazilian move has backfired, and is forcing American citizens to wait for hours at Brazilian airports as, apparently, Brazil does not have the technology to deal with its version of the US$710-million US-VISIT programme.
The United States Government has protested to Brazil and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin has asked the U.S. to treat Brazilians "with dignity", like the 27 other countries, mostly European, but including Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, which have been exempted by the U.S. from 'US-VISIT' by virtue of being in its visa waiver programme.
The American Civil Liberties Union regards the new procedures as "a large privacy violation waiting to happen, with records garnered under the programme likely retained even after you've become a citizen, and a provision permitting their sharing with foreign governments". Its view is that those seeking to avoid US-VISIT altogether could simply enter the U.S.A. through a port that does not yet have the system.
George Crimarco, a U.S. immigration attorney, points out that the granting of a visa is not a right but a privilege, "so the admitting country has the right to set whatever rules they want to set regarding who they want to admit to their country".
DHS gives the assurance that the travel data gleaned through US-VISIT will be securely stored, and is made available only to authorised officials and selected law enforcement agencies on a need-to-know basis.
Depending upon the individual circumstances, an individual who violates immigration laws by overstaying his or her period of admission may be subject to removal (deportation) from the United States and may be barred from future entry, or from receiving a new visa. So the US-VISIT by reconciling departures with arrivals, expects to reduce drastically the number of foreigners who overstay their visas.
US-VISIT applies to people of all ages except specific classes of diplomats and some other officials. Visitors under age 14 and over age 79 will also be exempt from US-VISIT procedures.
The use of such biometric identifiers as digital "fingerscans", in addition to biographic data, DHS officials say, will make it more difficult for suspects to hide their true identities in an attempt to escape detection and enter the United States illegally.
They maintain also that biometric identifiers also protect visitors because they make it virtually impossible for anyone else to claim their identity should their travel documents be stolen or duplicated. Biometric identifiers will also reduce fraud and abuse of the immigration system.
A centrepiece of the US-VISIT programme is the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's state-of-the-art computer technology called the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AIFS), which houses in digital form more than 46 million sets of fingerprints that can be searched and matched in a matter of minutes.
A Kingston attorney who practises criminal law reckons that US-VISIT may restrict Jamaica-to-U.S. travel a bit, but he sees a positive in it.
"Criminals who hitherto were deported from the United States, come here, commit offences, buy a new passport, get a new visa, and are back in the United States within two, three months that will be a thing of the past," he said. The same would apply to criminals who live here. "In other words, criminals won't be able to run from one jurisdiction to the other as easily as they used to because their fingerprints will give them away. So when they get to Miami, JFK or the O'Hare International Airport they might very well be sent back to Jamaica in custody. The same thing will apply to drug dealers whether they commit murder in the States or are involved in trafficking there, then run down here, they can't go from one jurisdiction to another with impunity anymore."
While the system was being tested in Atlanta, starting in November, at least 20 people with criminal records were caught.
The US-VISIT data are available to U.S. Consular Officers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers at ports of entry, special agents in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adjudications staff at U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services offices, and other appropriate federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel.
Several years ago, when the word "terrorist" was largely confined to places like Lebanon and in the language used between the Israelis and Palestinians, I went to the U.S. Embassy in Kingston to keep an appointment with a Drug Enforcement Administration agent I had never met. I had been put in touch with him through a mutual friend, and had called to set up the meeting for a time that was convenient to both of us.
He met me at the elevator, I walked through a metal detector, and he was about to take me into his office, when a pretty, smiling Marine guard, asked me if I had a driver's licence on me. I was taken aback. I handed it over and she photocopied it quickly and returned it to me. "What do those people take me for?" I asked myself. "Do they think I am a thief?" (I wasn't then familiar with the word 'terrorist'). "Imagine," I thought to myself, "these foreigners asking me for identification in my own country? What insolence!"
The interview went through somewhat perfunctorily; not quite as sparkling as I had planned, maybe coloured by the incident.
A few years passed, then on August 7, 1998 there was the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya and in Dares-Salaam, Tanzania, with much loss of life. And then there was the assassination of the Northern Alliance leader in Afghanistan by Arab extremists posing as television reporter and crew.
I got to thinking about the U.S. Marine guard who had asked for my driver's licence and decided that by so doing she really had acted professionally and in the protection of her embassy.
