The Ministry of State Security chose the name of the machine "Inkless Fingerprint"
Los Angeles airport on Christmas Eve. It is estimated that every year 26 million foreigners will be required to give their fingerprints and be photographed
From next Monday, entry into the United States will no longer be the same. Immediately after landing, the entrants will be asked to go through the same familiar and long queue on the way to the immigration officer, and the initial inspection will also be as it was - examination of the passport, examination of the entry visa, a few short questions about the purpose The clerk will then point to a small glass board on his counter and ask the visitor to place his index finger on the board for a few seconds The person who enters looks directly at the camera in front of him and does not move for a single moment.
From this moment on, the biometric data of everyone entering the US will be entered into the largest computerized database the US has ever established to track foreigners entering its territory.
The new program, known as US-VISIT, will partially go into effect on January 5, with the biometric sampling devices being placed in 115 international airports and 14 major seaports. Later in 2004, the Ministry of State Security undertook to complete the plan, to install systems to monitor the departure of foreigners from the US and to handle about 50 land crossing points between the US and Canada and Mexico, which are currently not included in the new system.
When the exit plan is also completed, everyone leaving the US will be asked to go through a self-service computerized scanning point, a kind of ATM, where they will give their fingerprint again and be registered as someone who left. This way, the system will be able to know if the incoming foreigners actually met the conditions of their visa and left the country on time.
The Ministry of State Security is careful not to use the phrase "fingerprints" in reference to the new requirement for foreigners seeking to enter the US. The laundered name chosen is "inkless finger screening", in order to avoid as much as possible the negative context of taking a fingerprint sample In the public announcements and press briefings in recent weeks, it was emphasized that this is a short and clean procedure, which is not at all similar to the vision known from movies. The police, where the suspect dips his fingers in ink while the clerk at the station presses them to the paper. "I believe that the foreign guests will find that the method we apply is harmless, easy and quick, and that it gives them the confidence that when they enter the US they are not entering with those who may pose a danger." , said last week the deputy minister in the Ministry of State Security, Asa Hutchinson, in a briefing for representatives of the foreign media in Washington.
The registration program will be cancelled
The demand for a biometric surveillance program for foreigners entering the US was placed by the US Congress as part of the lessons learned on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks proved that the borders of the US have been breached and that there is no effective way to know the true identity of the entrant, what is the purpose of his entry and if his name appears on any list of sources may be related to terrorism. Would the new system have prevented the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people? unclear. But she would surely make it difficult for them.
The biometric identification system makes the use of fake identities and fake passports more difficult, almost impossible. Beyond that, it makes it possible to know immediately, at the time of entry, what the legal status of the incoming foreigner is. For example, some of the hijackers, who had already exceeded their visa requirements when they entered the country in order to carry out the attacks, were not allowed to enter the US. The possibility of attacks and you will find those people who try to enter the country with fake documents and those who have not respected their visa conditions in the past."
The estimated cost of the project is more than ten billion dollars, and it will be one of the largest contracts awarded by the Ministry of State Security. In the last two years, the domestic security industry has become one of the most prosperous in the US. Almost all the major security companies and the Pentagon's major suppliers have entered the field, which in the last year generated about 55 billion dollars.
The imposition of the requirement to submit fingerprints and a photo upon entry to the US caused outrage among immigrant and foreign organizations in the US and abroad, mainly because of the negative connotations of these steps and the criminal context accompanying them. Rather, the American human rights organization, ACLU, refrained from expressing its opinion on the new plan of the Ministry of State Security and said that its position will be determined according to the way the plan is implemented - the way in which it preserves the dignity of the entrants and the use the state makes of the biometric information it requires from the entrants.
It is estimated that every year 26 million foreigners who enter the US will be required to submit their fingerprints and be photographed. The new surveillance method only applies to those who enter the US with entry visas and citizens of the countries that are in the "visa waiver" program are exempt from it. These are 28 countries, mainly from Europe, that the USA determined that they meet the conditions and do not pose a risk of terrorism, and therefore their citizens are allowed to enter the USA for short visits without a visa.
For the citizens of all other countries, the new plan will increase the feeling that they are not really welcome in the US and that America is very suspicious of them. But the plan also carries with it a message for the residents of Muslim and Arab countries around the world, who since the terrorist attacks have gone through difficulties and often harassment from the immigration services The new plan that will be implemented next week cancels a previous plan, which was in effect for more than a year and required the citizens of a list of countries considered to be related to terrorism (all of which were Muslim or Arab), to register at the immigration service offices and submit fingerprints there.
The address must be provided
The registration program intensified the Arab Americans' sense of alienation towards their government. The method of registering citizens of certain countries, with the implication that they may be involved in terrorism, has been accompanied by quite a few difficult stories. While the authorities assured that this was only a formal step, and encouraged the citizens of the Muslim and Arab countries to come and register of their own accord, it often turned out that the road to the registration station was one-way. When the immigration officials discovered that the registrant had exceeded the conditions of his visa, they usually acted to deport him from the US, even though he had come on his own to register.
About two months ago, the newspaper "Detroit News" brought the story of Yahya El-Ali, a Lebanese citizen who lived in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit with the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States. El-Ali heard about the request to come and register and was one of the first to show up at the local immigration offices. He knew that he had stayed in the US beyond the period specified in his entry visa, but saw his registration as a kind of signal that he wanted to enter the procedure Laws of the extension of stay. But his voluntary registration ended with a deportation order. The officials made it clear to him that he could no longer stay on US soil because of the exception, and that at most he could get an appointment for a hearing with an immigration judge while being held in custody.
The "Arab American Institute" (AAI), one of the bodies representing the interests of the Arabs in the US, claims that 13 thousand Arabs and Muslims who responded to the call to come and register were deported from the US in the year the program was implemented, and that thousands more are still in deportation proceedings. The organization welcomed the decision to put an end to the program, which, according to him, did not lead to the arrest of a single terrorist suspect but caused grief to an entire community.
The great advantage of the new system is that it does not discriminate between countries of origin and does not establish stigmas related to religion or origin. The fingerprints will be required to be given by Israelis, Arabs, Eastern Europeans, Chinese and others, without any difference. The Ministry of State Security also notes that actually handing over the fingerprints and the photograph is a relief for the entrants, because the computerized test will save the need for a second interview for entrants who were previously considered to have problematic data; For example, those whose name is similar to the name of a person on the prohibited entry lists, or citizens of one country who have a connection to another country, such as many Israelis from Arab countries who suffered quite a bit in the last year when entering the US borders.
Last week, with the raising of the alert level in the USA to the "orange" level, for fear of terrorist attacks during Christmas and New Year, more care was also taken at the entry points to the USA at the airports. Among other things, foreigners who did not have an accurate address for the duration of their stay in the US were not allowed to enter the country. Airline representatives were instructed to make it clear to passengers already at the port of departure that they must provide a complete address, not just the name of a hotel or the phone number of a relative, if they want to win Go through the passport control station at the entrance to the USA. This step, like the new requirement to provide fingerprints at the airport, make entering America a less pleasant experience for many foreigners. The American authorities make it clear that there is no other choice. "We want to treat everyone fairly, to be a welcoming nation," says Deputy Minister Hutchinson, "the fact that we have to focus on terrorism is an inconvenience to all of us. I don't like to take my shoes off when I go through the airport, nobody likes that, but that's Some of the unpleasantness we have to endure because of our security needs."
