Border security program expands

WASHINGTON - One year after launching a digital screening system to help identify suspicious foreign visitors arriving in the United States by air and sea, federal officials announced Monday that they have extended the program to the 50 busiest U.S. land ports along the Canadian and Mexican borders.

The program uses digital scanners to examine prints taken from the two index fingers, as well as head-shot photographs taken with digital cameras. Those "biometric" identifiers can then be matched against several databases, verifying the identity of visitors and checking various federal and state watch lists.

Last year, the new tools helped authorities arrest or deny entry to 372 people sought for federal or state crimes or identified as violators of immigration law, according to officials at the Department of Homeland Security.

None of those apprehended were linked to terrorist plots, officials acknowledged. Identifying terrorism suspects became the prime challenge for border security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks exposed lapses in how federal government tracks the whereabouts of foreigners who are potential terrorist threats.

Still, a senior Homeland Security official declared the first phase of the program a success. US-VISIT, short for U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, has become "the gold standard for security and convenience," said Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary for border and transportation security.

Hutchinson said the screening process had cut paperwork and border-crossing times for many foreigners. He cited data showing that the average checkpoint wait for certain classes of visitors had dropped to 2 minutes, 33 seconds in Laredo, Texas. Previously, the average wait had been 12 minutes, 10 seconds.

Similarly, at Douglas, Ariz., the average wait dropped to 3 minutes, 29 seconds, from 4 minutes, 16 seconds. At Port Huron, Mich., it dropped to 9 minutes, 51 seconds, from 11 minutes, 42 seconds.

Congressional Democrats say US-VISIT, which has cost more than $700 million so far, has serious flaws that hinder its ability to combat terrorism. They note that there is no comprehensive check on when visitors leave the country.

"At the end of the day, our argument is, 'You're spending all this money, but how many terrorists have you caught?' " said Moira Whelan, a spokeswoman for the Democratic members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.