News Update - December 20, 2008

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

DHS Now Requires Lawful Permanent Residents to Provide Biometric Data Upon Arrival to the United States

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US-VISIT) in 2003 to verify the identities of non-immigrants traveling to the United States. Until now US-VISIT required visa holders and those without a visa as part of the Visa Waiver Program to provide fingerscans, photographs, or other biometric identifiers upon arrival at a U.S. port of entry. Beginning January 18, 2009 this program will also include lawful permanent residents (LPRs) returning to the U.S. from abroad.

The US-VISIT program collects biometric data from immigrants seeking entry into the U.S. and from the consular offices of the Department of State gathered in the visa application process. DHS then uses this information to identify suspected terrorists, known criminals, and individual with U.S. immigration violations to determine whether an immigrant is eligible for entry into the U.S.

Even though LPRs are subjected to extensive background checks in order to be granted that status, DHS believes it is necessary to include the inspection of LPRs in the US-VISIT program due to document fraud and the past issuance of LPR cards without expiration dates or the current security features. DHS’s position is that LPRs are still immigrants subject to entry, documentation, and removability, and admissibility requirements and the US-VISIT program assists DHS in determining which LPRs have failed to meet these requirements and are inadmissible for reentry.

The inclusion of LPRs in the US-VISIT program does not mean that LPRs will have to join the “Visitor” line at U.S. ports of entry. The equipment necessary to take biometric information will be present in all lines and LPRs will remain with the “United States Citizen/LPR” lines.

† The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

‡ This article © 2008 Alan Lee, Esq.

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