WASHINGTON — Adapting a concept that supermarkets have perfected, U.S. immigration authorities today will begin using a digital inventory control system to keep tabs on millions of foreign visitors who enter the country with visas.
Instead of bar codes and scanners that shopkeepers use to track cereal boxes, the government will take digital fingerprints and photos to register visitors as they arrive in the United States, and eventually to confirm their departure.
The system -- United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, or US-VISIT -- will be formally inaugurated today at 113 airports and 14 seaports. Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson is expected to oversee the launch at Los Angeles International Airport, a major gateway for travelers from Asia and South America.
The government calls US-VISIT the most significant immigration technology in decades, and promises it will add only seconds to the processing of arriving travelers. But some are concerned about potential loopholes, and the travel industry worries that the system will create added burdens for law-abiding visitors.
Initially, US-VISIT will have significant gaps. It will register only arrivals, not departures. Technology to digitally record departures by air and sea is months away from deployment, according to optimistic estimates. Moreover, no system has been set up to digitally track either arrivals or departures by land, which account for the majority of border crossings.
That would mean that, at least for the rest of 2004, the government will be like a supermarket tracking merchandise and sales by simultaneously using bar codes and computers, as well as hand counts and paper inventory sheets.
"The exit control part is critically important for a coherent immigration system," said Steven A. Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies. "It's the exit part that's always been the challenge."
In addition to the technological questions, the travel industry and others fear that the program could lead to misunderstandings, a decline in tourism and delays at points of entry.
Along the border with Mexico, business groups have warned that the application of US-VISIT could cripple commerce if not carried out carefully. The system is supposed to be phased in at the 50 largest vehicle and pedestrian crossings, such as the one between Tijuana and San Ysidro, by the end of 2004.
