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Fingerprints proposed for foreign travelers

May 21, 2013

immigrationA plan to require foreigners to be fingerprinted when they depart the nation’s 10 busiest airports should be in place within two years, a Senate committee agreed Monday. (USA Today)

The proposal by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) faces additional action in the Upper House, but is a compromise measure adopted with bipartisan support.

Under provisions of the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security would be required to develop and implement what is called a “biometric system” to pinpoint foreign visitors who have overstayed their visas. About 40 percent of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants now in the U.S. fit in this category.

First airports to be covered by the action would be Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., increasing that number of airports to 30 within six years. Sea and land ports would be added within six years.

The bill is part of sweeping immigration legislation now being debated in Congress.


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I have mixed feelings about the immigration issue but I fail to see how fingerprinting a foreigner flying into the US will accomplish much but to give more busywork to the INS/TSA/HSA. Most of the foreigners who become illegal immigrants are not coming in by plane. Those that do are unlikely to apply for jobs requiring fingerprint checks.


I suppose that fingerprinting foreigners (legal or otherwise) who enter the US could be useful in tracing down someone who committed a crime leaving only fingerprints as evidence but how common would that be? Would the costs of fingerprinting millions of foreign travelers be justified by the frequency of the use of those prints?


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What do people need to give fingerprints to travel for?


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I am not against immigrants, all our fa

milies were at one time or another. My hubby’s family is, and legally became citizens. Hard to sympathize with coming here for years and not bothering to become legal.


There was that story a few years ago about that women being sent home to South America when her teenage kids were American citizens. The kids were crying about how unfair it was. NO, it was fair! What was not excusable was why did Mom not do what it took to become legal? There have been plenty amnesty programs…etc…no excuses. IF this fingerprint program was intact at the time, maybe she would have been confronted to either get legal or go home years ago, before she is separated from the kids.


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If all international travel required you to be nude, there would only be important and “green” with envy travel.


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Why is it that we have talked about 20million illegals, then it was 16 million illegal immigrants, and now we are talking about 11million “travelers”. Our wonderful politicians can not only not call them what they are, “ILLEGALS”‘ they don’t even know how many there are. If we are going to pass an illegal immigration bill, it should be simple: you have to have been her before 2012, you can have no criminal charges of any kind, you have to have a job, housing, health care, and have paid taxes for two years. If you do not have a job or need assistance for you or any member of your family or you are arrested for ANY crime during your first five years legally registered in this Country, you are deported. Welcome to America!


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That actually should be “convicted” of a crime. We will all be talking about this again in 10 years or we will have no borders, no AMERICA, no open government. Just the United Nations telling us what to eat, what and where to build, the car to travel, the amount of money you need, the taxes you pay.


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Gee, only 40% of 11 million immigrants have over-stayed their visas? Well, that’s just a paltry 4,400,000 people… could hardly fill a U.S. city with that!


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This is a great idea!! You can’t get a drivers license without being fingerprinted. So if they want to be here, they can do as every other American has to do.


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“The bill is part of sweeping immigration legislation now being debated in Congress.”

Sweeping my eye, if the laws on the books had been enforced and the borders secured 30 years ago we would not be having this discussion today…

The latest phrase, “unauthorized immigrants” would not even be needed.


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