Senate Considers Biometric Border Patrol

Antiterrorist bill would build digital fingerprint database, design "smart" visas, and scan travelers.

Ellie Phillips, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- A bill that would widely install biometric tools to identify everyone crossing U.S. borders has been dropped into a larger antiterrorism measure, making it more likely to become law.

The legislation would require many border crossings to use biometric technology, which scans unique physical features to create (and compare) digital images. Biometric methods include electronic iris-scanning, hand geography, and face recognition technology. Such technology can also create electronic databases of fingerprints.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, (D-California) and Jon Kyl, (R-Arizona) co-sponsored the biometrics bill, which has already attracted bipartisan support. The border security act was introduced in early November by seven senators, including Democrat Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and is expected to come to a vote before the end of the 2001 legislative session.

"We must fully implement the use of biometric border crossing cards," Kennedy says in a statement.

Tech Assist

Feinstein is an outspoken advocate of implementing technology in a number of new security practices.

"If we had been using biometrics, we could've potentially forestalled the September 11 attacks," Feinstein told the Senate subcommittee for technology, terrorism and government information, which she chairs. "The biometrics technology offers us a way to identify potential terrorists." Biometric identification methods are also being considered for airport security.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he "will help to see that it is passed into law."

The FBI's fingerprint database is a good model, and possibly a good foundation, for the envisioned INS database, officials say.

Michael D. Kirkpatrick, the FBI assistant director who oversees the "integrated automated fingerprint identification system," says it's "a high-volume system with capacity for growth." The national fingerprint database already contains more than 42.8 million digital fingerprint records, and smaller databases exist at all levels of government, he says. For example, California is among the states that require a thumbprint to obtain a driver's license.

Other Tactics

But electronic fingerprints alone aren't enough, several industry officials say. They recommend a combination of the technologies.

"There is no silver bullet," says Joanna Lau, chairman and CEO of California-based Lau Technologies, which produces facial recognition software.

If approved, the new biometrics law would, among other things:

• Require the Immigration and Naturalization Service to create a centralized database of biometric data on all foreign nationals.
• Require all non-immigrants to submit fingerprints or other designated biometric data to the State Department when applying for visas.
• Require the State Department to electronically transmit versions of its visa files to the centralized database.
• Require the INS and State Department to establish a biometric "smart visa" that would enable them to track foreign nationals crossing U.S. borders.
• Authorize funding for biometric card readers and scanners to be deployed at all U.S. land, air, and sea ports of entry.