More than 300 foreigners apprehended in biometric searches

Biometric technologies led to the apprehension of more than 300 non-immigrant aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States over the past four months, a senior Justice Department official said Thursday.

The department's National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which began operating Sept. 11, 2002, uses technology to obtain digital fingerprints from certain temporary foreign visitors at all U.S. ports of entry. For example, all adult non-immigrant aliens from "state sponsors of terrorism"-including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria-are required to have their fingerprints scanned.

But certain individuals from more than 140 other countries also have undergone the fingerprint screening because immigration officials determined that they met certain "intelligence-based criteria." So far, nearly 31,000 aliens have been processed, the official said.

Those fingerprints have been checked against databases containing the fingerprints of thousands of known terrorists and tens of thousands of individuals who are suspected of committing felonies in the United States. Immigration officials also check a database of unidentified fingerprints collected from training camps in Afghanistan and other areas of suspected terrorist activity.

The official said the NSEERS program has led to "some successes" in identifying and stopping terrorists but declined to give a precise number of suspected terrorists who have been caught through the system.

The 330 individuals who have been apprehended raised a "wide variety" of red flags with immigration officials, according to the official. For example, some have been convicted of drug trafficking and other felonies, some were "wanted criminals," and some presented fraudulent immigration documents.

The NSEERS program also requires certain nonimmigrant aliens who arrived in the United States before Sept. 11, 2002, to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and provide such information as their addresses, parents' names and educational history.

More than 23,000 individuals have undergone that "domestic registration" so far, the official said, adding that 164 of those individuals are in custody for various reasons, including immigration violations and criminal records.