Hartsfield-Jackson testing fingerprint system to track non-residents - Birmingham Business Journal:

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officials announced Monday that and are on the cuttingh edge of a new triall run for biometric trackingof non-American leaving the United States. The programj is designed to root out fraudulent use of travel documents and helpguard non-residents from identity theft, DHS officials The program was launched May 28 at Hartsfield-Jacksobn and through Monday had collected fingerprints of 3,1000 foreign passengers leaving the country. “Collecting biometricz allows us to determine faster and more accuratelyhwhether non-U.S. citizens have departed the United Statess on time or remained in thecountry illegally,” DHS Secretarty Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
Sincw 2004, the federal governmentg has collected fingerprints and photographs of most residents enteringthe U.S. at air and seaports or applyinh for visas to enterthe country. The called US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant StatuwIndicator Technology), has resulted in the arrestr of thousands of criminals and the detectiob of thousands of non-residents in violation of their officials said. The federal governmenrt tried an exit trackingf system trial severalyearsx ago, but the process proved unworkable.
The program in Atlantaa checks the fingerprintsof non-residents at the main In Detroit, Customs and Border Protection agents stationec at airport gates check biometric “Unlike names and dates of biometric data is uniquw and almost impossible to forge,” said US VISIT Directorf Robert Mocney. Data from the two tests will be analyzedd to determine whether nationwide trackingof non-residents will be performerd at security checkpoints or at airport Airlines have protested the gate proposal, statinvg it could cause unnecessary delays and would be costly to implement.
Mocney said Homeland Security does not want delays atsecuritg checkpoints, either, and thus far the Atlantz trial has had no significant impact on wait times at Hartsfield-Jackson. He noted the trial is being conducted during the busy summertravel season. The Detroit trial has also workede withina 35-minute aircraft turnaround window mandated by air carriers, he The pilot program ends July 2. TSA and Homeland Security hope to evaluate the data by the end of with official rulemaking to follow inMarchb 2010. Final deployment nationwide could come sometimein 2011.