FAIR Submits Public Comment on Biometric Entry-Exit System

On October 27, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule providing that aliens may be required to be photographed both when entering and exiting the United States. The rule significantly improves DHS’s ability to verify alien travelers’ identities and would provide valuable tools to combat visa overstays and document fraud.

FAIR submitted a public comment in support of the rule, arguing that without an accurate biometric entry-exit system, it is difficult to protect against fraud and reliably verify that an alien has left the country as required by the terms of their visas. There are two significant gaps that biometric exit would address: 1) reducing the need for DHS to investigate whether an alien has been confirmed to have left the country and allowing DHS to prioritize resources towards locating aliens still in the country; and 2) helping to prevent aliens from departing and then attempting to reenter under a different identity.

Currently, it is difficult to track visa overstays, including potential national security threats, and protect against the use of fraudulent documents. As noted in FAIR’s comment, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 alone, DHS estimated that there were 538,548 overstay events, or specific instances where nonimmigrants overstayed their visas. These numbers raise serious concerns, especially since history has shown that such individuals may pose a threat to national security while on U.S. soil. Approximately one to two percent of nonimmigrant visa admissions end up as overstays each year, resulting in roughly 650,000-850,000 overstays for each year between FY 2016-2022.

The final rule would implement lessons from DHS pilot programs and avoid staffing and infrastructure burdens by streamlining the photograph capture process and minimizing delay to travelers. FAIR argues that:

The resulting system would be accurate, unobtrusive, and efficient. Based on lessons derived from pilot programs, DHS has robust evidence that a biometric entry-exit system would better detect people who were not admitted or paroled into the United States while avoiding undue cost and travel delays.

FAIR supports the rule as a practical step towards nationwide biometric entry-exit coverage at all air, land, and sea ports of entry, and continued testing of additional biometric technologies to close remaining gaps and further improve the system.

To read FAIR’s full public comment, click here.