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Ports enter digital age

By LUCY DUKES
Hagadone News Network
Biometric program installed at Porthill

BONNERS FERRY -- Now some of the people crossing the U.S.-Canadian border through Boundary County will get their pictures taken digitally and their index fingers scanned as part of a new "biometric entry procedures" program.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security implemented the new US-VISIT program at Porthill on Oct. 27, and will start taking photos and fingerprint scans of certain visitors at Eastport on Nov. 28. Biometric information gathering went online at six other ports of entry in Washington on Oct. 27 as well.

"For most people, nothing is going to be different," said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Mike Milne.

Most Canadians and U.S. citizens do not have to get their fingerprints scanned and photos taken. Only people required to have a passport and non-immigrant visa while entering the United States and those who can get into the United States using a passport with no visa a required to participate.

That's "most of the rest of the world," Milne said.

Only about 400 out of the 194,114 people who went through Porthill last year would have been required to give biometric information. At Eastport, 1,200 out of 250,820 would have had to do so.

The new entry procedures are being implemented all over the United States, he said, starting in 2004 with information collected in seaports. Homeland security plans to install the system at all land border crossings by Dec. 31 this year, according to the US-VISIT Web site.

US-VISIT is developing an exit procedure as well, so that those who entered can be tracked as well. That way, Customs and Border Protection will know not only who enters and exits and when, but if people overstay their visa.

Homeland security is "a ways" from implementing the exit procedures at all ports. US VISIT is "exploring alternatives" for a check out system. Exit procedures are in place at several locations throughout the United States, Milne said.

The procedures are designed to enhance border security, speed up legitimate trade and travel, enhance the integrity of the immigration system and will protect visitor privacy because the information won't be shared, he said.

The new process is actually faster than the old one, which required those who qualify for the new procedure to fill out an I-94 immigration form. It's also safer, because nobody can steal and use passports under the new procedure.

"It actually speeds up the process because we're doing it in an automated process," he said.

The information will be kept private, though the Homeland Security database connects with FBI and other criminal databases. So far, of the 40 million people processed, more than 880 criminals and immigration violators have been caught, according to Milne.