The US government says it will soon start taking pictures of all foreign nationals entering and leaving the country, including legal ones with green cards and visas, as part of its immigration crackdown. The government says more photos and better facial recognition will help catch criminals and stop immigration violations.
As per a published document from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal agency will require customs and border patrol agents to collect images and other biometric data from all non-citizens that enter and leave the country. The ruling will go into effect 60 days after the document’s publication, which will be on 26 December.
The additional ruling builds on top of President Donald Trump’s “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order that was issued earlier this year on 20 January. For context, the order claimed that “millions of illegal aliens crossed our borders or were permitted to fly directly into the United States on commercial flights and allowed to settle in American communities, in violation of longstanding Federal laws”.
Moreover, the order claimed that these “aliens” pose a “significant threat to national security and public safety, committing vile and heinous acts against innocent Americans”. Other acts include “espionage, economic espionage, and preparations for terror-related activities”.
Soon, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin using enhanced photographic and facial recognition technology to better track foreigners who enter and leave the country. This imaging of immigrants is part of the administration’s plan of creating an extensive data collection network that will track immigrants. These include legal immigrants, those who overstay their legal documents and those who were inside the US without being legally admitted.
The new ruling claims that the facial recognition system can identify “impostors” who are utilising other people’s travel credentials. Furthermore, the additional biometric data collected at the border will help CBP “reconcile any errors or incomplete data in a traveller’s biographic data.” CBP also claims that photographing foreigners will “improve security”.
As for US citizens, the document claims that the CBP “will not retain photographs of U.S. citizens” the moment the federal agency confirms that the traveller is a U.S. citizen. On that note, photos of the US citizen will be “discarded within 12 hours of verification of the individual’s identity and citizenship”.
The document further justifies the implementation of this law by claiming that it will save approximately 1.25 hours per vessel arrival. This is in addition to its other claim of “improving national and homeland security efforts”.
It is worth noting that there are already various points of entry in the US that require photos of people coming and going from the country, though this is not implemented everywhere nor is it compulsory for immigrants—both of these will soon change. Additionally, the ruling that prevented those under the age of 14 and over 79 from being required to be photographed will soon be removed.
Though this ruling will take effect on 26 December, CBP estimates that the new system could be fully rolled out within three to five years, as per Newsweek’s report.
(Sources: PetaPixel, Department of Homeland Security, WhiteHouse.gov, Newsweek)
