 Foreign visitors arriving with visas at U.S. airports or seaports next year will have their travel documents scanned, their fingerprints and photos taken and their identification checked against terrorist watch lists. The system, which goes into effect Jan. 1, will check the comings and goings of foreign travelers who arrive in this country carrying visas.
Homeland Security Department undersecretary Asa Hutchinson said Monday such a system could have caught hijackers Mohammed Atta, who had overstayed his visa on a previous occasion, and Hani Hanjour, when he failed to show up at school as required by his student visa. "Border security can no longer be just a coastline, or a line on the ground between two nations. It's also a line of information in a computer, telling us who is in this country, for how long and for what reason," Hutchinson said. Congress has provided about 0 million for the new system, which will replace a paper-based system that been highly criticized since the Sept. 11 attacks. Under the U.S. VISIT system, a visa carrier will be required to provide immigrant and citizenship status, nationality, country of residence and an address where the visitor will be staying in the United States. When the visitor leaves, Hutchinson said, the system will verify the traveler's departure and identification. The system will later be enhanced, possibly to include iris scans or facial recognition technology, Hutchinson said.
(Agencies) | 明年開始，所有攜簽證到達美國各個機場或者海港的外國人都要接受一系列安全檢查，其中包括掃描旅行護照、提取指紋和照片同恐怖分子名單對照以確認其身份。這套安全系統將于2004年1月份開始使用，用以檢測所有帶有護照的來往外國游客。 美國邊境和運輸安全部的副部長胡特金森5月19日說，如果當初使用這樣一套系統，那么簽證過期的9·11劫機者穆罕默德·阿塔和沒能在學校出示學生簽證的哈尼·漢珠爾就可以被制止了。 胡特金森說："邊境安全不能再像現在這樣僅僅是兩國之間的一條海岸線或者地界這樣簡單。它還是電腦中的信息連線，告訴我們誰在這個國家中、為什么來、要逗留多久。" 美國國會已經在本財政年度中為這一新的安全系統撥款3.8億美元，以便替換掉從前的僅靠紙上記錄的系統。舊的系統因為未能在9·11事件前后發揮有效作用因而受到猛烈批評。 這套"造訪安檢系統"要求帶有護照的外國造訪者提供移民和公民身份證明、國籍、居住國家以及該旅客在美逗留期間的居住地址。 胡特金森說，當造訪者離境后，該系統將對其是否真的離境和他的身份進行核實。 但是該系統還有待改進，可能還將增加眼球虹膜掃描或者面部辨認技術。
(中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2003-05-21 01:00
