A growing federal program that uses facial scans to confirm the identities of international passengers is being expanded across U.S. airports, with officials calling it a vital step in border security and immigration enforcement.
Critics worry about privacy, but supporters say the technology is helping to identify visa overstays and keep flights on schedule, the New York Times reported.
The “biometric exit” program, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, photographs passengers before departure and compares the images with passport records. Federal officials say the process prevents fraud, ensures that travelers match their documents, and closes long-standing security gaps identified after the September 11 attacks.
For U.S. citizens, photos are deleted within 12 hours. For foreign nationals, images can be stored for up to 75 years, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Since 2017, biometric exit has confirmed the identities of more than 810 million travelers, including 500,000 foreign nationals who overstayed their visas. More than half of international passengers now undergo biometric confirmation, according to Daniel P. Tanciar, a deputy director at CBP.
President Trump ordered the system to be expedited in 2017 as part of a broader immigration crackdown, giving new urgency to a plan first proposed in the 9/11 commission report. On Sept. 15, federal regulators approved a rule that clears the way for biometric exit to be extended to all airports, seaports, and land crossings.
Tanciar said the program is designed to be quick and minimally disruptive, using cameras at boarding gates or CBP-issued cell phones. “It is absolutely normal, absolutely possible that a C.B.P. officer or team of C.B.P. officers may be at your gate using their mobile phones to take photographs,” he said. “It is different than what they have experienced, but it is not certainly anything new or unusual or anything they should be concerned about.”
Travelers can opt out by requesting manual passport checks; however, doing so may result in delayed boarding.
Privacy advocates, such as Jeramie Scott of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, warn that facial recognition could lead to “mission creep,” with uses extending beyond border checks. “The main reason they’re using facial recognition is because it’s easy,” Scott said.
Officials argue that privacy fears overlook the security benefits of facial comparison, which can detect fraud and strengthen immigration enforcement. Keith Jeffries, former federal security director of Los Angeles International Airport, said biometric exit is an added safeguard because “people’s appearances can change” since their passport photos were taken.
With the system now expanding, airports are set to play a larger role in balancing privacy concerns against the government’s drive to secure borders and enforce immigration laws.
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