"Airport directors seek delay of security plan"

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Airport directors seek delay of security plan
By Bryon Okada
The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram


TAMPA - An alliance of directors from the nation's 30 largest airports are
calling on Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to delay a program
requiring fingerprint screening of foreign travelers to make sure they leave
the United States.

With fewer than four months until the year-end deadline, airports have still
received no clear plan on how the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
will implement the $380 million program.

They also do not know who will build the screening machines or how airports
should reconfigure terminals yet again to add space for more passenger
screening for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology
screening program, or US-VISIT.

A letter signed by the airport directors, including Dallas/Fort Worth
Airport Chief Executive Officer Jeff Fegan, will be sent to Ridge on Monday.
It will say that the year-end deadline to begin the US-VISIT program is too
much, too soon.

"Lines discourage people from travel," Fegan said. `Nobody disagrees with
the need for the program. But there's an unknown about how this will affect
individual airports, and the unknown always creates concern.`

Under the US-VISIT biometric screening program, photographs would be taken
of foreign travelers, who would be required to give other identifying
information and a fingerprint. At some point, other biometric measures such
as iris scans or face recognition could be used.

When leaving the U.S., the fingerprint would verify that the same person
left. The program is expected to eventually encompass all visitors to the
U.S., including those at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders.

But it is being tested first at the 30 biggest U.S. airports. The system is
supposed to take only seconds per passenger.

Foreign travelers the group directly affected are largely unaware of the
program, officials said.

Even among immigration inspectors, the program is not well-known.

"I didn't know about it. Are they communicating with us? No.," said a Texas
airport inspector who declined to be identified.

But some immigrant advocates said they fear that another layer of processing
hassles could scare away foreign travelers.

"This is a shame, because people who want to visit their family or come as a
tourist have to be in this thing," said Barkat Ali, a member of the North
Texas Pakistan Society. "They're just making it harder and harder for
everyone."

For large hub airports such as D/FW, which is about a year and a half from
finishing an international terminal, the idea of gutting the international
travel market is particularly difficult.

Angela Gittens, director of Miami International Airport, a critical
international hub airport for American Airlines, said, "They are involving
us ... now. Sea travel is international. Air travel in the U.S. is mostly
domestic. In a lot of ways, it makes the least sense to start with the
airports."

Gittens moderated a closed-door panel discussion on the US-VISIT program
Tuesday at the Airports Council International-North America conference in
Tampa. ACI-North America is the primary industry voice of airports in the
U.S. and Canada.

Moments into the discussion, the media were barred from the conference room
at the behest of federal customs officials. No specific reason for the
secrecy was given, and various attendees said the discussion did not involve
anything that breached national security.

The session originally was intended to be open, ACI-North America officials
said.

Officials with the US-VISIT program and the Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection did not speak to the media. An official from the Transportation
Security Administration was not present at the discussion.

In Washington, D.C., Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Kimberly
Weissman said, "The department is aware of the concerns raised by the air
industry and we continue to work closely with them regarding the US-VISIT
program."

Officials with ACI-North America say they may include the organization's
name in the airport directors' letter to Ridge.

"I don't have a problem with the concept of keeping track of people, but the
ways of going about it that I'm hearing aren't going to work," said David
Plavin, ACI-North America's president.

In particular, officials do not know where to put machines to do the
additional screening _ the same problem they encountered with
baggage-screening mandates a year ago. Anything short of screening at the
jetbridge can be circumvented, Plavin said.

A person could check in, then walk out of the airport. Or go through
security and leave through an exit. Or connect to an international flight at
a large hub airport such as D/FW, and get lost on the train that connects
three terminals.

"We have 18 to 20 gates in Terminal A, two more in E, six more in B, with 17
checkpoints and a train," Fegan said. "That's a lot of access."

The airport flap might be only the tip of the iceberg.

"Just wait until they start with the borders in Texas," said Stephen Van
Beek, ACI-North America's, senior vice president of police and strategic
development.

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