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CNN Live At Daybreak
U.S.-Visit Program Starts Today
Aired January 05, 2004 - 06:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Starting today, visitors from all over the world will be greeted here in the United States in a whole new way -- with a fingerprint machine and a digital camera. It's all part of a new homeland security initiative.
CNN's Elaine Quijano has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Brazilian judge wants to give American travelers a taste of the U.S. government's own medicine, so he's requiring Americans entering Brazil to be fingerprinted and photographed. That's what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now requiring of an estimated 24 million foreigners who enter the U.S. through 115 airports and 14 seaports annually.
ASA HUTCHINSON, HOMELAND SECURITY UNDERSECRETARY: Our international visitors with the visa will have a photograph taken and two finger scans that will be taken at the same time.
QUIJANO: Government officials say under the so-called Visit Program, that data will be checked against terrorist watch lists and used to determine if a person has overstayed a visa.
(on camera): There are exceptions. Visitors from 28 countries, mostly in North America and Europe, are not required to take part, because they're allowed to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without visas.
(voice-over): Some point out gathering and processing all of that data could prove overwhelming.
LARRY JOHNSON, AVIATION SECURITY EXPERT: There is so much information in such volumes that there is a limit to what any analyst can absorb.
QUIJANO: And others say the program could inconvenience travelers.
FAIZ REHMAN, PAKISTAN AMERICAN COUNCIL: Without proper training, there will be long lines. There will be missed flights. There will be people who would be wrongly stopped.
QUIJANO: But U.S. lawmakers, who mandated the program, believe keeping the data will help secure the nation's borders. REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: We want to keep the bad guys out of our country. We want to identify them and keep them out, and we want to find them if they're already here. We did a bad job of that on 9/11.
QUIJANO: Yet critics believe U.S.-Visit would not have prevented 9/11.
TIM EDGAR, ACLU: The problem with 9/11 is we didn't know who the terrorists were. We could have put them through this system, and they would have gotten through without any problem.
QUIJANO: Still, homeland security officials insist U.S.-Visit is a step forward and building a more comprehensive system to track terrorists.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 5, 2004 - 06:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Starting today, visitors from all over the world will be greeted here in the United States in a whole new way -- with a fingerprint machine and a digital camera. It's all part of a new homeland security initiative.
CNN's Elaine Quijano has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Brazilian judge wants to give American travelers a taste of the U.S. government's own medicine, so he's requiring Americans entering Brazil to be fingerprinted and photographed. That's what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now requiring of an estimated 24 million foreigners who enter the U.S. through 115 airports and 14 seaports annually.
ASA HUTCHINSON, HOMELAND SECURITY UNDERSECRETARY: Our international visitors with the visa will have a photograph taken and two finger scans that will be taken at the same time.
QUIJANO: Government officials say under the so-called Visit Program, that data will be checked against terrorist watch lists and used to determine if a person has overstayed a visa.
(on camera): There are exceptions. Visitors from 28 countries, mostly in North America and Europe, are not required to take part, because they're allowed to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without visas.
(voice-over): Some point out gathering and processing all of that data could prove overwhelming.
LARRY JOHNSON, AVIATION SECURITY EXPERT: There is so much information in such volumes that there is a limit to what any analyst can absorb.
QUIJANO: And others say the program could inconvenience travelers.
FAIZ REHMAN, PAKISTAN AMERICAN COUNCIL: Without proper training, there will be long lines. There will be missed flights. There will be people who would be wrongly stopped.
QUIJANO: But U.S. lawmakers, who mandated the program, believe keeping the data will help secure the nation's borders. REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: We want to keep the bad guys out of our country. We want to identify them and keep them out, and we want to find them if they're already here. We did a bad job of that on 9/11.
QUIJANO: Yet critics believe U.S.-Visit would not have prevented 9/11.
TIM EDGAR, ACLU: The problem with 9/11 is we didn't know who the terrorists were. We could have put them through this system, and they would have gotten through without any problem.
QUIJANO: Still, homeland security officials insist U.S.-Visit is a step forward and building a more comprehensive system to track terrorists.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
