…beginning in a few weeks! That is the big headline on Drudge just now. However, I urge caution—do not hold your breath waiting for the momentous occasion!
Here is AP about that hearing I mentioned this morning:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing its plan for a biometric data system to track when immigrants leave the United States and will present it to Congress within “weeks,” a top department official told a House Homeland Security subcommittee Tuesday.
An exit system to track who is leaving the country and when has been sought since before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. DHS officials, including Secretary Janet Napolitano, have agreed with the need for such a program but have previously said it would be too costly.
John Cohen, the department’s deputy counter terrorism coordinator, did not discuss the cost in his testimony about the problem of immigrants who overstay visas. He said the department’s report to Congress will explain how DHS plans to better determine who has overstayed their visa.
I’m guessing the final straw for the O-man was the arrest of the Uzbek for his assassination plot against the President—the one who didn’t show up for school after receiving a student visa, here.
Ann Corcoran
Judy K. Warner
Who does DHS think its fooling? What exactly is so expensive about
a visa tracking program? You have a list of people who entered
the country on visa..you deduct names from that list as they leave the country. When people who entered dont leave on the specified date..their
name is flagged. A simple thumbprint bioscan like the ones banks use
could verify that the exit is a valid one. This entire program could
be maintained on a single computer with a decent hard drive.
What is the “big expense” here?
By: porkchopsforislam on March 6, 2012
at 7:14 pm
Porkchop, I thought the same thing myself—why is this so hard that they have been talking about it for ten years!
By: acorcoran on March 6, 2012
at 7:27 pm