RegardingID Archive | Coast Guard and US-VISIT keep illegal immigrants at sea

Friday, October 19, 2007

The Coast Guard wins agency award for its Identix portable, rugged biometric handhelds used in the Mona Passage near the Dominican Republic to counteract illegal immigrants. The scanners are tied to the Homeland Security Department’s US-VISIT Automated Biometric Identification database (Ident). The program is now in place on five cutters. Biometric and biographic data from the migrants is transferred to laptops on the ships and stored in encrypted files, which are then sent to US-VISIT as e-mail attachments. The information is automatically erased from the handheld scanners when it is transferred to the laptop. Results are returned within two minutes. Based on the fingerprints collected to date, 9 percent of the fingerprint matches to US-VISIT’s database are convicted felons, and 20 percent have orders of deportation barring them from entering the United States.

Read the full article here.

Smart cards replace paper coupons in Indian prison

Prisoners at Tihar prisons, located near New Delhi, India, will now be using smart cards instead of paper coupons for their food purchases.

As reported by The Economic Times, the former system of paper food coupons led to misuse and illegal activity within the jail. Some prisoners would use it for currency in order to get banned substances or buy favors from others.

Concerns mount over new Canadian biometric programs

Privacy advocates in Canada have been raising concerns over the risk involved in two new biometric programs from the government that result in the sharing of private biometric data with other countries’ governments and possibly private corporations, according to an Embassy Magazine article.

UK and Ireland to share biometric data to fight illegal immigration

The UK and Ireland have struck a deal wherein they will share information from visa applications including fingerprint data, according to a BBC News article.

Accenture wins $71M contract from DHS

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Accenture Federal Services a 13-month, $71 million contract to add biometric modalities and other enhancements to the US-VISIT program. US-VISIT uses digital fingerprints and photographs. A pilot program included in the contract will test facial and iris voluntary identification enrollment and matching.

New report predicts financial and civil obstacles for biometric ID card

A new report created by the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law & Social Policy at UC Berkeley School of Law predicts a price tag of at least $40 billion for a mandatory biometric employment verification card for all U.S. workers that would utilize either fingerprint or fingervein scans.

UK to start using biometric residence permits

The UK Border Agency has announced intentions to require applicants applying for six-month stays from outside the European Economic Area to use biometric residency permits starting at the end of February 2012, according to an HR Magazine article.

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Coast Guard and US-VISIT keep illegal immigrants at sea