U.S. Tests Biometric Screening on Mexican Border Elliot Spagat - The Associated Press
go to original December 11, 2015

A pedestrian crossing from Mexico into the United States at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry has his facial features and eyes scanned at a biometric kiosk in San Diego. (AP)

Nearly half of the people living in the U.S. illegally are believed to have entered the country legally and stayed on expired visas. To combat the problem, the federal government this week is launched one of its most ambitious efforts to track them.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin capturing facial and eye scans of foreigners entering the country at San Diego's Otay Mesa port of entry on foot. By February, foreigners going to Mexico on foot through the checkpoint will get scanned.

The trial run, which lasts through the end of June, will help determine if authorities expand biometric screening to foreigners at all land crossings on the 1,954-mile border with Mexico. Authorities will look at the accuracy of the cameras.

For more than two decades, Congress has demanded biometric screening such as fingerprints, facial images or eye scans from people leaving the country, but the task has presented enormous financial and logistical challenges. There is no checkout system at land crossings.

...Biometric screening has raised objections from privacy advocates who worry that authorities may misuse the information or make it vulnerable to identity theft. It also has raised concerns among businesses and travelers who fear bottlenecks at already congested land crossings.

Read the rest at Newser

Related: Border Patrol Internal Review Rejects Body Cameras (MSNBC)

Related: ACLU Criticizes US Border Patrol: Report Says Government Agency Oversteps Its Bounds (ACLU)

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