Foreigners at Detroit Metro Will Face Fingerprinting Starting Jan. 5

December 28, 2003

Foreigners at Metro Will Face Fingerprinting Starting Jan. 5
Lansing State Journal, MI
 
DETROIT - Starting Jan. 5, most foreigners who arrive in the United States at 
Detroit Metropolitan Airport will be photographed and fingerprinted as part of 
a stepped-up nationwide effort to improve border security.

Customs inspectors across the nation will take digital photographs and 
fingerprints of about 24 million foreign visitors annually. Only citizens of 28 
countries - mostly European nations, Australia and Canada - are exempted from 
the requirement. 

The U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program 
"will lead to a safer nation and enhanced security," said Greg Palmore, a 
spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. 

But civil libertarians and leaders of Arab-American groups said they are 
worried about the potential that the government could misuse the information it 
collects. 

"We are concerned that this may lead to mistakes by immigration officials," 
such as the misidentification of people as criminal suspects, said Kary Moss, 
executive director of the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union. 

The program eventually will be put in place at the Ambassador Bridge, the 
Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and other land crossings into the United States by 2005 
or 2006, Palmore said. 

The 50 busiest land crossings must be added to the program by Dec. 31, 2004, 
Congress ordered. 

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