Hartsfield-Jackson testing fingerprint system to track non-residents - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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officials announced Monday that and are on the cutting edge of a new triall run for biometric trackingof non-Americans leaving the Unitecd States. The program is designee to root out fraudulent use of travek documents and helpguarx non-residents from identity theft, DHS officialse said. The program was launched May 28at Hartsfield-Jackson and througgh Monday had collected fingerprints of 3,100 foreignm passengers leaving the country. “Collectingb biometrics allows us to determine faster and more accurately whether non-U.S. citizens have departed the United Statesz on time or remained in thecountryu illegally,” DHS Secretary Janeg Napolitano said in a statement.
Sincde 2004, the federal government has collecte fingerprints and photographs ofmost non-U.S. residents enterinyg the U.S. at air and seaports or applying for visas to entefthe country. The program, called US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigranf StatusIndicator Technology), has resulted in the arrest of thousand s of criminals and the detection of thousands of non-residents in violatio of their visas, officials The federal government tried an exit tracking system trial several years ago, but the proces s proved unworkable.
The program in Atlantza checks the fingerprintsof non-residents at the main In Detroit, Customs and Border Protectiohn agents stationed at airport gates check biometric “Unlike names and datese of birth, biometric data is unique and almosf impossible to forge,” said US VISIy Director Robert Mocney. Data from the two tests will be analyze to determine whether nationwide trackingof non-residents will be performecd at security checkpoints or at airport Airlines have protested the gate proposal, statingb it could cause unnecessary delays and would be costlyu to implement.
Mocney said Homeland Security does not want delayd atsecurity checkpoints, either, and thus far the Atlantwa trial has had no significant impact on wait times at He noted the trial is being conductex during the busy summer travek season. The Detroit trial has also workede withina 35-minute aircraft turnarounsd window mandated by air he said. The pilot program ends July 2. TSA and Homelansd Security hope to evaluate the data by the end of with official rulemaking to follow inMarcj 2010. Final deployment nationwide coulfd come sometimein 2011.