u.s. to fingerprint australians

U.S. to Fingerprint More Foreigners


Apr 2, 7:28 PM (ET)

By SUZANNE GAMBOA

WASHINGTON (AP) - A program requiring foreigners to be fingerprinted and photographed before entering the United States is being expanded to include millions of travelers from some of America's staunchest allies, officials said Friday.

The move affects citizens in 27 countries - including Britain, Japan and Australia - who had been allowed to travel within the United States without visas for up to 90 days. Officials said the change was prompted in part by concerns that terrorists might try to exploit those exemptions.

While foreign governments expressed understanding, a U.S. travel organization worried the new restrictions could limit trips to America just as the number of foreign visitors was returning to the levels of before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The changes in the US-VISIT program will take effect by Sept. 30. Travelers from the 27 countries will be fingerprinted and photographed each time they enter the United States through any of 115 international airports and 14 seaports. The program will be expanded to border crossings later.

Citizens from those countries still won't have to go through the consulate interviews and background checks that people from other nations must do to obtain visas.

There are no changes in unique rules covering visits by Canadians and Mexicans.

The 27 countries are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The Bush administration made the move after determining most of the so-called "visa-waiver countries" won't meet an October deadline to have biometric passports, said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security. Such passports include fingerprint and iris identification features that make the documents virtually impossible to counterfeit. U.S. passports haven't been upgraded with those features yet, either.

Hutchinson said the change will enhance security while ensuring that law-abiding visitors are not subjected to lengthy secondary screenings at the border.

But he also said the decision was based on intelligence that "terrorists would look to programs such as the visa-waiver program to exploit because of fewer security checks."

The US-VISIT program was passed by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In January, the government began fingerprinting and photographing visitors from nations other than the visa-waiver countries.

About 2.6 million people have been processed so far and more than 200 with prior or suspected criminal or immigration violations have been stopped, according to Homeland Security.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., applauded the decision, saying it would strengthen security. His committee will consider the administration's request to push back the biometric deadline to October 2006.

Hutchinson said adding the estimated 13 million annual visitors from visa-waiver countries should not create massive backlogs at airports and seaports. He said it takes only 23 seconds per person to take fingerprints and photos and check them against government files. He also said the existing system could handle the additional checks and new inspectors or computers would not be needed.

However, fingerprinting the visa-waiver citizens could have ramifications for Americans when they travel abroad. When US-VISIT began last winter, Brazil retaliated by requiring Americans visiting that country to be fingerprinted and photographed.

Hutchinson said he did not expect other countries to follow Brazil's example. "Our allies, they will see this as a good security measure," he said. He also said the federal government would welcome the visa-waiver countries moving to similar measures.

Britain's Home Office said it had no plans to require Americans to be fingerprinted and photographed when entering that country.

The reaction among citizens abroad varied.

Bruce Clark, an engineer from Hertfordshire, England, said he "would be very peeved" by the new requirements but probably still travel to America.

In Paris, bartender Kerwan Borne scoffed at the change.

"Bravo, welcome to the dictatorship. Why don't they put a bar code here," he said, pointing to the back of his neck, "and stick a