By Karen Brettell
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International visitors flying into NewYork now face being identified by all ten fingerprints, part ofa heightened security system aimed at identifying potentialterror suspects and visa fraud, officials said on Tuesday.
The upgraded system, part of the U.S. government's HomelandSecurity program and its war on terror, increases the chancesof catching illegal or potentially dangerous entrants into thecountry, officials said at a media briefing at John F. KennedyInternational Airport on Tuesday.
The system expands the digital fingerprinting ofinternational visitors to ten fingers from two.
"Quite simply, this change gives our officers a moreaccurate idea of who is in front of them," said Paul Morris, anexecutive director at the U.S. Customs and Border Protectionagency. "For those who may pose a risk, we will have greaterinsight into who they are."
The added measure came under fire from critics who claim itis not only ineffective but could violate passengers' privacy.
"As near as I can tell, there has been absolutely nosuccess from this in catching terrorists," said Bruce Schneier,chief security technology officer at BT Counterpane in SantaClara, California, who has studied the system.
"The real question of these programs is, are they the bestuse of our terrorism dollar," Schneier said.
Officials announced on Tuesday the system has been added toseveral entry points at Kennedy and is already in use atairports in Washington, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and othermajor U.S. cities.
The upgrade, to be installed at all U.S. ports of entry bySeptember, will cost around $280 million (139.7 millionpounds), according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. government has been collecting digitalfingerprints and photographs of nearly all non-citizens aged 14and up entering the country since 2004, officials said, in aHomeland Security program called US-VISIT, at a cost of $1.7billion.
Visitors' fingerprints are checked against federal criminaland immigration records, and boosting the system will allowauthorities to match fingerprints against a larger number onrecord, U.S. officials said.
On an average day, almost 14,400 international visitorsundergo the fingerprinting process at Kennedy, officials said.
More than 2,000 criminal and visa fraud cases have beendetected by the screening process, introduced in response tosecurity concerns following the attacks of September 11, 2001,U.S. officials said.
Great Britain has introduced ten-finger scans ofvisa-carrying foreigners into the country, while Canada and theEuropean Union are working on similar programs.
(Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorstand Todd Eastham)
