|
US to fingerprint more foreign visitors
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-04-03 09:43
A program requiring foreigners to be fingerprinted and
photographed before entering the United States is being expanded to include
millions of travelers from some of America's staunchest allies, U.S. officials
said Friday.
A reporter holds
his finger in a fingerprinting machine at JFK airport in New York as
airport officials demonstrate the new US Visit Customs entry program.
[AFP] |
The move affects citizens in 27 countries — including Britain, Japan and
Australia — who had been allowed to travel within the United States without
visas for up to 90 days. Officials said the change was prompted in part by
concerns that terrorists might try to exploit those exemptions.
While foreign governments expressed understanding, a U.S. travel organization
worried the new restrictions could limit trips to America just as the number of
foreign visitors was returning to the levels of before the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
The changes in the US-VISIT program will take effect by Sept. 30. Travelers
from the 27 countries will be fingerprinted and photographed each time they
enter the United States through any of 115 international airports and 14
seaports. The program will be expanded to border crossings later.
Citizens from those countries still won't have to go through the consulate
interviews and background checks that people from other nations must do to
obtain visas.
There are no changes in unique rules covering visits by Canadians and
Mexicans.
The 27 countries are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino,
Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The Bush administration made the move after determining most of the so-called
"visa-waiver countries" won't meet an October deadline to have biometric
passports, said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation
security. Such passports include fingerprint and iris identification features
that make the documents virtually impossible to counterfeit. U.S. passports
haven't been upgraded with those features yet, either.
Hutchinson said the change will enhance security while ensuring that
law-abiding visitors are not subjected to lengthy secondary screenings at the
border.
But he also said the decision was based on intelligence that "terrorists
would look to programs such as the visa-waiver program to exploit because of
fewer security checks."
The US-VISIT program was passed by Congress in response to the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks. In January, the government began fingerprinting and photographing
visitors from nations other than the visa-waiver countries.
About 2.6 million people have been processed so far and more than 200 with
prior or suspected criminal or immigration violations have been stopped,
according to Homeland Security.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
