Traveler ID System Introduced at LAX

A new high-tech database designed to track millions of visitors to the United States each year received positive early reviews from travelers arriving at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday.

Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson unveiled the biometric system, known as United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, or US-VISIT, in the bustling customs area of LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal.

The devices are being introduced at 115 airports and 14 seaports this week.

Demonstrating the system, Hutchinson presented his passport to a U.S. customs agent who placed Hutchinson’s right index finger, then his left, on an electronic keypad that digitally scanned his fingerprints. Then he snapped Hutchinson’s picture with a webcam-style digital camera. The information was checked against government databases and federal watch lists.

Any traveler singled out by the database would be asked to step aside for further questioning.

As he exited the customs line, Hutchinson was welcomed to Los Angeles by a throng of about 100 reporters and photographers, the biggest media turnout at a LAX press conference since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“This administration is committed to preserving a welcoming nature to the U.S.,” Hutchinson said. “But some take advantage of that openness and that’s the reason we’ve developed this new technology.”

Federal security officials hope the new biometric system, which Congress authorized after the skyjackings, will deter both terrorists and illegal immigrants. U.S. citizens, green card holders and visitors from 27 countries whose citizens are not required to carry visas to the U.S. will not be subject to US-VISIT scrutiny.

Officials estimate that the technology will screen 2.2-million people, or 31%, of the 7-million international visitors who arrive at LAX each year, Hutchinson said. LAX consistently ranks among the two busiest international airports in the country -- handling about 14.8 million arrivals and departures by international visitors in 2002.

Travelers who helped inaugurate the new technology Monday expressed surprise that they were required to provide both their fingerprints and a photo to customs agents, but said that the new requirement didn’t cause longer lines.

“I think it’s for security, and as long as it is I don’t have any problem with it,” said Vicky Garcia, 20, who arrived on a student visa from El Salvador to study international business at Cerritos College.

Garcia and other students, businesspeople and tourists traveling on visas supported the government’s claim that the use of US-VISIT would take only a few seconds of a traveler’s time.

“It didn’t take long,” said Hogan Jeong, a 44-year-old semiconductor salesman from South Korea who was headed to catch a flight for a consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas.

Officials said the system already has helped them catch law-breakers. During a test in Miami, US-VISIT alerted customs agents to a traveler who had been deported from the U.S. in 2003 after committing credit card fraud and was trying to reenter the country using a false Jamaican passport, Hutchinson said.

The system also singled out an arriving passenger at LAX on Monday. Customs officials said the database information about the traveler was not “terrorism-related,” but would not elaborate.

Initially, the system will record only arrivals to the U.S. Technology to digitally record departures by air and sea, which would require visitors with visas to scan their fingerprints at special kiosks, is not expected to be in place until the end of this year.

Officials expect the system to improve the visa process, which previously was not computerized. The government hopes US-VISIT will reduce the number of foreigners who overstay their visas, which several of the men who hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001 had done.

Meanwhile, Hutchinson said in an interview that he doesn’t expect the heightened security alert, which requires tighter security at the nation’s airports, to be lifted anytime soon.

“In one sense we breathed a sigh of relief now that the holidays are over,” he said. “But information still indicates that we should remain at this level because of credible intelligence.”

On Dec. 21, the federal Department of Homeland Security raised the nation’s alert level to orange -- the second-highest level on the government’s color-coded alert system. Since then, federal officials have called for the cancellation of some flights, including eight to Los Angeles, for fear they may have been targeted by Al Qaeda.

Officials continue to monitor specific flight numbers, although they will request the cancellation of further flights only as a “last resort,” Hutchinson said.