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THE WASHINGTON POST [Wash Post Group/Graham] - By Spencer S. Hsu - June 22, 2008; A08
The airline industry and embassies of 34 countries, including the members of the European Union, are urging the U.S. government to withdraw a plan that would require airlines and cruise lines to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the United States, starting in August 2009. - - -

Airlines said the change would cost the industry $12.3 billion over 10 years, not $3.5 billion as the Department of Homeland Security estimated in unveiling the proposal in April. Representatives of the nations affected said it is the duty of the U.S. government, not private companies, to enforce immigration and border security laws, and they raised privacy concerns about companies collecting fingerprints.

"This proposal to outsource the core government function of border control at a time that airlines around the world are fighting for their economic survival is both unwarranted and counterproductive," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association.

The plan to track exiting foreign visitors is part of a program known as US-VISIT, an initiative that Congress first promoted in 1996 and launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to use fingerprints and digital photographs to automate the processing of visitors entering and exiting the country. For security reasons, U.S. officials have put a priority on identifying incoming visitors. Setting up systems to record exits is much more costly but still can help enforce immigration laws and track security risks.

This year, 24 foreign carriers and about eight U.S. carriers have halted operations, gone out of business or sought bankruptcy protection. - - -

The alliance, whose 230 members include 78 that fly to and from the United States, said airlines and passengers have spent $30 billion for often duplicative and bureaucratic security measures since 9/11.

"This uncoordinated and costly mess can no longer be dismissed as simply 'the cost of doing business,' " Bisignani said. He called on DHS to integrate and streamline five passenger-data-collection programs that include reservation system data, passenger manifest information and immigration and customs forms.

Clive Wright, a senior British Embassy official in Washington, wrote on behalf of 34 governments, saying they "are seriously concerned" about the new fingerprint mandate for private companies. He argued that the requirements pose privacy, liability and business risks to airlines far more costly and difficult than any issues they now face in handling immigration issues. - - -

Congress last year set a July 2009 deadline, which DHS says it can meet by the next month, for DHS to begin collecting fingerprints from departing air passengers; the mandate is part of a law to implement recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. Lawmakers were frustrated by DHS's slow pace in expanding US-VISIT.

The program has recorded images and fingerprints of nearly 100 million people entering the country since 2004. - - - -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101466_pf.html

Also:

U.S. to Insist That Travel Industry Get Fingerprints
THE WASHINGTON POST [Wash Post Group/Graham] - By Spencer S. Hsu and Del Quentin Wilber - April 22, 2008; A08
The U.S. government today will order commercial airlines and cruise lines to prepare to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the country under a security initiative that the industry has condemned as costly and burdensome.
The proposal does not say where airlines must collect fingerprints -- at airport check-in counters, departure gates or kiosks somewhere in between. But the government estimates the undertaking will cost airlines $2.3 billion over 10 years, a U.S. homeland security official said.
The overall economic impact on companies, passengers and the government is expected to exceed $3.5 billion, industry lobbyists said, at a time when carriers are struggling with safety concerns, high fuel costs and passenger complaints. - - -
Fingerprinting an estimated 33 million departing foreign passengers a year will result in "delayed departures, missed connections here and around the world," Lavin said. - - - -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042103036_pf.html
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