• DHS to begin using portable DNA screener this summer

    DHS this summer plans to begin testing a DNA analyzer that is small enough to be easily portable and fast enough to return results in less than an hour; the analyzer initially will be used to determine kinship among refugees and asylum seekers; it also could help establish whether foreigners giving children up for adoption are their parents or other relatives, and help combat child smuggling and human trafficking; eventually, the analyzer also could be used positively to identify criminals, illegal immigrants, missing persons, and mass casualty victims

  • California enrolls in biometric system to crack down on illegal immigration

    Last week California became the ninth state in the United States to fully deploy the Secure Communities program, which automatically runs an arrested individual’s fingerprint through a national database to determine their immigration status; each year law enforcement officials arrest an estimated one million non-U.S. citizens; ICE has deported more than 62,500 aliens convicted of crimes under the program; critics of the program believe that use of the system has led to the arrest and deportation of noncriminal immigrants and are also concerned about the mandatory use of the system; a report found that in Illinois 78 percent of all detainees identified by ICE were non-criminals

  • Kenya orders 100,000 more biometric ID cards from OTI

    On Track Innovations Ltd. (OTI) recently received an additional order for 100,000 of its MediSmart healthcare biometric ID cards; the cards were purchased by Kenya’s Smart Applications International Ltd. (SMART) for use in medical facilities across Kenya; the card contains a microchip that stores a patient’s name, picture, signature, and medical treatment records; SMART has already issued an estimated 200,000 MediSmart cards to combat fraud