Border Patrol hails new ID system

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20041220-103705-9177r>

The Washington Times
 www.washingtontimes.com

Border Patrol hails new ID system
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 21, 2004
Border Patrol agents assigned to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
identified and arrested 23,502 persons with criminal records nationwide
through a new biometric integrated fingerprint system during a three-month
period beginning in September, CBP officials said yesterday.
     Most of those arrested were foreign nationals.
     "This 21st-century biometric identification technology is a critical
law-enforcement tool for our CBP Border Patrol agents," said CBP
Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. "It allows CBP Border Patrol agents to
quickly identify criminals by working faster, smarter and employing
technology to better secure the nation."
     Mr. Bonner has described the new system as "absolutely critical" to
CBP's priority mission of keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of
the country, adding that it gives the agents the ability to identify those
with criminal backgrounds "we could never have identified before."
     The program, known as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (IAFIS), is a biometric identification technology
enabling Border Patrol agents to search CBP's Automated Biometric
Identification System (IDENT) and the FBI's criminal fingerprint database
simultaneously, CBP spokesman Mario Villarreal said.
     It allows Border Patrol agents to rapidly identify people with
outstanding warrants and criminal histories by electronically comparing a
live-scanned 10-fingerprint entry against a comprehensive national database
of previously captured fingerprints, he said.
     The IAFIS/IDENT system went on line this year at all 148 Border Patrol
station throughout the country. It began as a pilot project in San Diego,
where it was employed at the Border Patrol's Brown Field, Calif., station,
and at the Calexico, Calif., port of entry.
     During the three-month period this year, the agents identified and
detained 84 homicide suspects, 37 kidnapping suspects, 151 sexual assault
suspects, 212 robbery suspects, 1,238 suspects for assaults of other types,
and 2,630 suspects implicated in dangerous narcotics-related charges.
     CBP is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland
Security charged with the management, control and protection of the
nation's borders at and between the ports of entry. CBP is charged with
keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing
hundreds of U.S. laws.

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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