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Tracking system for foreigners entering U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON MAY 20. Beginning January 1, 2004, foreign visitors without any exception entering the United States on visas will have their documents scanned, subject to fingerprinting and photographs taken at the time of entry into airports and seaports.

The Under Secretary of the Homeland Security Department, Asa Hutchinson, said that if this system had been in place at the time of the terror attacks of September 11,2001, it could have stopped two of the hijackers. Mr. Hutchinson was giving details of a new tracking system called U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indication Technology or US VISIT. American nationals and those who are not required to have visas for entry into the U.S. are not subjected to the new tracking system.

"Border security can no longer be just a coastline, or a line on the ground between two nations. It's also a line of information on a computer telling us who is in this country, for how long and for what reason," the senior administration official remarked. It is being pointed out that travellers with visa numbered about 23 millions (accounting for 60 per cent of foreign visitors to the U.S.) last year. Under the visit system, a visa carrier will be required to provide immigrant and citizenship status, nationality, country of residence and an address of where the visitor would be staying.

And when the visitor leaves, the tracking system will verify a traveller's departure and identification. Under the present system there is no outbound Immigration for this is routinely done by the airlines itself. But under the new US VISIT system this will change and the government would also be able to keep track of changes in immigration status and any updates that have been deemed necessary.

According to Mr. Hutchinson, the scanning of documents along with the fingerprinting and photographing of an entering visitor would be checked against the lists of those people who are to be denied entry into the country for a variety of reasons, including prior visa violations, criminal background and belonging to terrorist outfits.

"In 99.9 per cent of the cases, the visitor will simply be wished a good day or sent on their way. But with that small percentage of hits, our country will be made much safer and our immigration system will be given a foundation of integrity that has been lacking for too long," Mr. Hutchinson argued.

One of the first priorities of the Bush administration in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001 was to tighten the immigration procedures and streamline the process with a view to taking steps to prevent further attacks in this country. It has been reminded every now and then that all the 19 hijackers entered this country on visas and two were illegals in this country at the time of the attacks.

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