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US
expands security with exit screening
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FOREIGN nationals departing the United States will undergo
security exit screening as part of the US VISIT program
expansion. The US Homeland Security Department has commenced
recording and verifying digital fingerprints and photographs
of all visa-holding foreign nationals who leave the United
States through Marin Airport in US Virgin Islands, Baltimore-Washington
International Airport and Miami's International Cruise Line
Terminal. The program is scheduled to expand to 14 airports
and seaports by September, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas,
Denver, Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Seattle and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
With the exit screening, the Homeland Security Department
is seeking to identify who is in the country, monitor who
have overstayed their visit, and compare the verified identities
to names on security watch lists. Several of the 9/11 hijackers
had stayed past their visa expiration.
"We will know they are in the country but not necessarily
where they are," Danielle Sheahan, spokeswoman for
Customs and Border Protection, told Virgin Islands Daily
News. “Visitors must tell Customs their immediate destination,
but their travels within the country are not tracked.”
The US VISIT program was launched in January at most airports
and seaports as part of an effort to tighten US borders
and prevent other attacks like 9/11. Done manually or at
a self-service kiosk, biometrics is the collection and use
of fingerprint and photographic information. As they do
not currently need visas to enter the US, visitors from
Germany, France, Japan and Australia are presently exempted,
until Sept. 30 when they will be subjected to acquire biometric
passports by Oct. 26, 2005. Excluded in the exit portion
of the US VISIT program are some members of international
organizations such as NATO, children younger than 14 and
adults older than 79. (with wire inputs)
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