Technology will alert officials - todays paper

Canada Immigration Forum (discussion group)

Subject: Technology will alert officials - todays paper

U.S. border points test radio chips in visas
Technology will alert officials to foreigners, landed immigrants crossing from Canada

Jonathan Fowlie
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Foreign travellers and landed immigrants crossing from Canada into select U.S. border checks will have to carry a radio chip that will identify them when they leave the country or return to the U.S. under the same visa, U.S. officials announced on Monday as they kicked off a pilot program to test the technology.

Embedded into a letter-envelope-sized piece of paper, the chips were introduced last Thursday at five land border crossings from both Canada and Mexico into the U.S., including the Pacific Highway and Peace Arch crossings into Washington state.

They will be handed out to all people travelling through those crossings using an I-94 visa -- used mostly by foreign travellers and landed immigrants -- during the nine-month trial period.

"What we are trying to do is make it easier for legitimate travellers and very difficult for people who are trying to beat the system," said Robert Mocny, deputy director of the US-VISIT program overseeing the project.

"We´re serious about immigration and we want to make sure that when you come to the U.S. you leave on time," he said.

"This is one more way of ensuring that [an] individual has left," he added.

Mocny said the chips contain serial numbers that can only be connected with personal information by U.S. government officials, and that they will only be read during the pilot project by devices within close proximity to the selected crossings.

Mocny said travellers using the chips will not notice much of a difference from the usual process of crossing the border as the chip is embedded into the receipt normally handed out with the visa. He said if the pilot project is successful, it could speed the flow of people coming into the country.

During the nine-month testing period, officials will just be looking to see whether the antennas at the crossings can pick up the signal from the chips, Mocny said. Once that has been determined, border agents hope to begin using the system at their checkpoints to identify travellers.

The new chips are the second phase of US-VISIT, the U.S. federal government´s screening system launched in 2004 that began with officers scanning selected travellers´ fingerprints and taking their digital pictures as they crossed the border at selected airports and sea ports.

Mocny said this next step will "bring some of that technology ... to the land border environment," something he said will help to strengthen border integrity and security, and help track some of the immigrants who disappear after entering the U.S. on a valid visa.

As of Monday, few travellers had had a chance to try the new system, but a 28-year-old German tourist at the Pacific Highway crossing said he supports the project, and is not bothered by being tracked by the chip.

"I have nothing to hide so why not? If it makes the country safer," said Remko Ahrens, who had been visiting family in B.C. and was crossing into the U.S. on Monday to see a baseball game in Seattle.

"I think it makes the process easier, faster," he said. "Nobody really wants to wait really long so I think it´s good to have it."

[09-08-2005,13:19]
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sharon