US to order airlines to fingerprint exiting foreigners

The US government on Tuesday will order airlines to prepare to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart...

The US government on Tuesday will order airlines to prepare to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the country under a security initiative that the industry has condemned as costly and burdensome.

The proposal does not say where fingerprints must be collected—at airport check-in counters, departure gates, or kiosks somewhere in-between. But the government estimates it will cost airlines $2.3 billion over 10 years, a U.S. homeland security official said.

The overall economic impact on companies, passengers and the government is expected to exceed $3.5 billion, industry lobbyists said, at a time

when carriers are struggling with safety concerns, high fuel costs and passenger complaints.

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Formal announcement of the plan to track the departure of foreign visitors, as part of the Homeland Security Department’s US-VISIT programme, comes after an extended battle between the security agency and airlines.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff linked the effort to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws recently, saying airlines were obstructing the measure for commercial reasons.

Launched after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, US-VISIT is intended to automate the processing of visitors entering and exiting the country, using fingerprints and digital photographs to help find criminals, potential terrorists and persons who overstay visas and join the nation’s illegal immigrant population.

While the programme has succeeded in recording nearly 100 million people entering the country since 2004, DHS has struggled to implement the exit portion. Frustrated at the department’s slow pace, Congress last year, in a law implementing the 9/11 commission’s recommendations, set a June 2009 deadline for DHS to collect fingerprints from departing air passengers.

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Otherwise, Congress said, the government cannot expand the Visa Waiver Program, under which residents of 27 friendly countries can visit the US without a visa. Inclusion in the program is a priority for nations such as South Korea and Greece, and the tourism industry has also targeted South America for expansion.