Visa scans, address checks start in January

Washington -- Millions of foreign tourists, business travelers and students who arrive each year at airports and seaports in the Bay Area and across the country will be fingerprinted, photographed and checked against a terrorist watch list before entering the United States.

The new rules, detailed Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, will affect all visitors who are required to have a visa -- at least 23 million people, or 60 percent of those who travel to the United States each year -- starting in January.

The requirement could lead to delays in getting visas and clearing customs, and it also raises privacy concerns about how personal information could be used. But administration officials say the new measures, which were ordered by Congress, are necessary to block terrorists from entering the country.

"This information will be available at our ports of entry as well as throughout our entire immigration enforcement system," said Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary for border and transportation security.

"Through this 'virtual border,' we will know who violates our entry requirements, who overstays or violates the terms of their stay, and who should be welcome again."

Immigrant advocates, though praising federal officials for a program that doesn't single out any particular ethnic group, cautioned that the system creates a potential for problems.

"The data they collect and share with our nation's gatekeepers must be accurate and on time," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, D.C. "If every Jose Lopez or Omar Said is tripped up by the system because one Jose Lopez or one Omar Said is on a watch list, we could be in for a disaster."

MORE TESTS COMING

Within the next few years, foreign visitors could be asked to undergo more sophisticated tests of their identity -- such as eye or facial recognition scans -- which most travelers have seen only in sci-fi movies.

The Bush administration will ask high-tech companies this fall to begin submitting proposals for "biometrics" devices, which rely on physical characteristics to determine identity. These technologies are considered more reliable than ID cards, but are likely to be viewed as invasive to many foreign visitors.

Hutchinson, announcing the rules at a speech in Washington, said the new system could have blocked two of the Sept. 11 terrorists from entering the country. One of the hijackers, Hani Hanjour, had violated his student visa by failing to show up at school. Mohammed Atta, the group's ringleader, violated his tourist visa by taking flying lessons and had overstayed his visa previously.

The new rules -- called "US VISIT" for United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology -- will not affect U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Canadians will continue to be allowed entry using only their driver's licenses.

The requirement also will not apply to visitors from 27 countries where visas are not required: Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Portugal,

Singapore, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra, Brunei and San Marino. However, these countries will be required to use biometrics by October 2004 to keep their "visa-waiver" status.

TOUGHER SCRUTINY

Under the new system, affected foreign visitors will face much tougher scrutiny. Their travel documents will be scanned into a computer, their photo will be taken, and their index fingers will be placed on an electronic scanner.

This data and other information, such as their address while in the United States, will be compared against documents and images of terrorists kept by the government, then placed on file.

"In 99.9 percent of the cases, the visitor will simply be wished a good day and sent on their way," Hutchinson said. "But with that small percentage of 'hits,' our country will be made much safer."

The administration may also require visitors to be fingerprinted or photographed at U.S. embassies and consular offices before their visits. The information would then be entered into a database and possibly embedded into visitors' passports or visas.

Tourism boosters, while acknowledging the need for tougher border control measures, fear the new rules could lead to longer lines at customs offices, especially at busy airports. At San Francisco International Airport last year, 3.6 million international visitors arrived and had to clear customs.

"Installing the US VISIT system at a major airport like SFO could result in some slight delays for arriving passengers," said Ron Wilson, former SFO spokesman, now an aviation consultant for ABC 7 and KGO radio. "But (the fingerprinting and photographing) would eventually be incorporated into the entry processing and cause little, if any, delay."

SFO has some experience in using the technology: It employs "hand scans" -- electronically checking the size and dimensions of the hand -- before allowing workers to enter runways or other secure areas of the airport.

EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGES

The new rules could affect tens of thousands of foreign students and researchers who flock to California universities. In the 2000-2001 academic year, the University of California system had more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students from abroad, as well as another 25,000 in UC Extension and other programs.

Mary Jacob, director of the office of international students and scholars at UC Santa Barbara, said many of her school's 1,900 foreign students and researchers are experiencing months-long delays in getting visas. She noted that foreign students will soon be required to pay up to $100 to fund a database to keep track of students.

"They are already experiencing tremendous delays, they will soon be paying to be monitored, and now we're going to tell them they have to be fingerprinted and photographed on top of that?" Jacob said.

The United States now has special border crossing cards with Mexico, which have photos and fingerprint information. The cards allow Mexican residents to come into border areas to shop and visit family.

"It's very difficult to do a fake," said Bernardo Mendez, spokesman for the Mexican consulate in San Francisco. "It's very sophisticated technology."