Flying into the US? You will be photographed and entered into a facial recognition database

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced a sweeping expansion of its biometric tracking regime , declaring in a recent notification in the Federal Register that virtually every non-US citizen entering or departing the United States will be photographed and entered into a facial-recognition database.

Under the final rule, which covers airports, seaports and land crossings, the agency states that it will “implement an integrated biometric entry-exit system that compares biometric data of aliens (ie: foreign nationals) collected upon arrival with biometric data collected upon departure”. This exercise will be carried out in order to address national-security risks , fraudulent travel documents, visa overstays and the presence of foreign nationals without lawful admission or parole.

While CBP has collected biometric data from certain foreign nationals upon arrival in the US since the past several years the new rule marks a significant expansion of the data collection process. The agency adds that the expanded system will also eliminate the current exemptions for children under 14 and seniors over 79 in the photograph capture process.

The regulation will apply to all non-citizens — including immigrants, lawful permanent residents (green-card holders) and those here illegally — and will give CBP authority to require facial recognition photography of these individuals at entry and/or departure.

The agency also states a preference for facial recognition as the biometric modality of choice given its operational feasibility in large-scale deployments. The regulatory document proposes that the rule will become effective 60 days from Oct 27 (which is the official date of publication in the Federal Register).

A similar proposal in Nov 2020, had led to opposition from civil-rights groups such as The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The Immigrant Defense Project (IDP). These associations had pointed out that facial-recognition technology is known to be error-prone and to suffer from demographic bias, raising the risk that non-citizens—especially those from certain backgrounds—may be misidentified, detained or subject to additional scrutiny. The coming weeks could see litigation as regards this final rule.

CBP contends that establishing a comprehensive biometric entry-exit system will bolster identity verification, reduce visa fraud, better detect overstays and improve national-security outcomes. It points to statutory mandates requiring the Department of Homeland Security to build an integrated system of entry and exit data for foreign nationals.

Once the rule takes effect, all travellers subject to the rule will be photographed upon arrival and departure. Failure to provide required photographs could render someone inadmissible on entry or subject to removal.