Border chief touts biometrics as security tool

The top border security official at the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday that biometric identification efforts are among the most important tools in securing and protecting the country.

Biometrics are "at the forefront of our agenda at Homeland Security," said Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security. According to Hutchinson, the technology, which is used to recognize physical characteristics such as fingerprints or faces, "represents the future of border security."

During a speech Wednesday at the Biometric Consortium in Crystal City, Va., Hutchinson underscored the importance of biometrics-related programs in protecting the country from terrorist attacks. While detailing the successes of biometrics, Hutchinson said that drug traffickers, murderers and armed robbers have been identified and caught at the U.S. border, but he did not specifically mention the identification of any terrorists. Homeland Security Department officials did not return calls asking if the use of biometrics has resulted in the capture of any terrorists.

At the conference Hutchinson recounted the story of a woman who attempted to enter the United States from Mexico with false identification. The woman's biometric information was recorded and she was barred from returning to the United States. Within a year, however, she attempted to enter the country through a California airport under a different identity. Hutchinson said immigration officials used the woman's biometric information to identify the woman and deport her. He did not suggest that she was a terrorist.

Hutchinson maintained, however, that biometrics have made the nation more secure, and he lauded specific immigration control programs such as US VISIT, a program to track foreign visitors entering and exiting the United States.

"I believe that our country is safer as a result of that effort," he said. "Not only is our country safer, but our immigration system has greater integrity."

The Homeland Security Department's biometric efforts came under sharp criticism earlier this year from members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation. Rep. John Mica. R-Fla., the panel's chairman, urged the agency to speed the development of biometrics technologies.

Hutchinson defended the Homeland Security Department's work and said officials are now completing biometrics-related projects ahead of schedule.