The Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment today to the bipartisan immigration reform bill that would require the fingerprinting of all foreigners flying out of the 30 busiest airports in the United States.
"On a vote of 13-5, the legislation's supporters agreed to require foreigners leaving the country through any of the nation's 30 busiest airports to submit to fingerprinting, part of an attempt to strengthen security. The proposal was drafted by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who has yet to announce whether he will support the bill," writes the Washington Post.
A previous attempt to require fingerprinting at all airports in the country was shot down two weeks ago. If the immigration bill passes with this amendment intact, the top 10 airports will need to implement fingerprinting within two years, while the remaining 20 have six years. Land and sea ports will also have six years to comply.
"This is an agreement that we need to build toward a biometric visa exit system," said Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who proposed the legislation on behalf of Hatch. "Implementing this biometric exit system is long overdue."
While the biometric identification system is favored by many politicians on both sides of the aisle, there has been little capital, both financial and political to fuel the effort.
"A full-fledged biometric entry-exit system is favored by many senators but was deemed too expensive and unworkable to include in the bill. Current law already requires such a system to be in place, but the Department of Homeland Security has not implemented it. Instead the bill seeks electronic scanning of photo IDs," writes CBS News.
The fingerprinting measure is the first step in what could become a widespread effort to catalog the movements of all people into and out of the country, a move that would have effects reaching far beyond immigration.
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