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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 13, 2002

U.S. to Begin Fingerprinting Aliens

The Justice Department has chosen Sept. 11 as the starting date for a new program that will require tens of thousands of foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed at the border, U.S. officials announced Monday.


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The Justice Department has chosen Sept. 11 as the starting date for a new program that will require tens of thousands of foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed at the border, U.S. officials announced Monday.

The security program, developed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will begin at several unnamed ports of entry and will mostly affect those from Muslim and Middle Eastern countries.

After a 20-day testing period, all remaining ports of entry will implement the new system on Oct. 1, 2002.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the program will correct some of the problems that led to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Congress required the Justice Department develop a stricter entry-exit system in sweeping anti-terrorism legislation signed by President Bush late last year.

Under the new program, the fingerprints of many foreign visitors will be matched against a database of known criminals and a database of known terrorists.

The government says the security system will target:

--All nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.

--Nonimmigrant aliens whom the State Department determines to present an elevated national security risk, based on criteria reflecting current intelligence.

--Aliens identified by INS inspectors at the port of entry, using similar criteria.

Some immigration advocates say the program is treating visitors unfairly.

During a pilot project using the same technology to identify wanted criminals attempting to re-enter the United States, the INS has received an average of about 70 fingerprint "hits" a week. The fingerprinting led to the arrest of more than 2,000 wanted felons between January and July.

Source: Agencies






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