United States. A bill mandating biometric monitoring of foreigners arriving in the United States was defeated by a Senate panel.
The Republican amendment would have required a biometric entry-exit system at ports of entry before granting permanent legal status to 11 million illegal immigrants as part of new immigration reform efforts.
Since 2004, the biometric method has been applied at US airports and other border crossings. The US-VISIT program has been collecting fingerprint data from foreigners entering the country and passing them through a watch list.
Collecting biometric data when a traveler leaves the United States has been a more difficult task. Numerous pilot tests have not shown that the system works well and that it collects the appropriate information from all travelers.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) sponsored the amendment, saying the biometric system is necessary because 40% of illegal immigrants have remained in the country after their visas expired.
But the cost to biometric control at leaving the country may be too high, says Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He warned that the implementation of that proposal could reach $ 25,000 million and added that biometric tracking systems have faced problems in performance tests.
Leave your comment