Airlines object to new US-VISIT exit procedures

When we reported last week that federal authorities had finally drafted regulations for air and sea exit under the US-VISIT program, we emphasized that while this was a good step forward for an oft-troubled program, DHS had still not created procedures for exit via land. “Because of the immense scope and complexity of the land border, biometric exit information cannot be practically based on biometric validation in the short term,” the government admitted. Now there’s another reason to be concerned: According to Washington Technology, the airline industry has come out strongly against the proposed regulations, which it says put the responsibility for fingerprinting exiting foreigners on the airline companies themselves.

This plan is “as ill-conceived as it is surprising ,” and “would wrongly delegate an inherently government, immigration and security-related function to the private sector,”

writes the Air Tranport Association’s James May in a recent letter to DHS. According to May, the proposal would cause long delays at already crowded ticketing counters, where DHS imagines the fingerprinting would be performed, and would probably prevent the use of on-line check-in for those leaving the country. May, naturally enough, prefers that the checks be done at the security checkpoints, where passenger rage will be directed at the federal government and not any particular carrier.