RFID Steps Closer To Protecting Borders

Federal authorities are moving closer to the deployment of radio-frequency identification technology to monitor the comings and goings of foreign visitors. Efforts under way at airports, maritime ports, and land borders promise to test RFID as a part of government customs processes this summer, says a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.

The more pressing test is expected to start early this summer, when RFID readers will begin detecting biometric tamper-proof passports to be carried by citizens of the 27 nations that qualify under the State Department's Visa Waiver program. The tests, which will occur at Los Angeles International Airport and undecided maritime ports of entry, are in preparation for compliance with the Enhanced Border Security Act, legislation that will require visitors from Visa Waiver nations who are issued new passports after Oct. 26, 2005, to carry passports containing facial recognition. (Some nations also will include optional digital fingerprint data.) The objective is to simplify border processing and security efforts by automatically capturing arrival and departure information, as well as ensuring that passport holders are who they claim to be.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security also is planning to start testing RFID at land borders in Arizona, New York, and Washington state by the end of July. The spokeswoman says the borders have an automated process for populating the Immigration and Naturalization Service's I-94 arrival-departure form by scanning documents carried by arriving foreigners, but that RFID is being explored for processing visitors as they leave, and then upon entry and exit on subsequent visits. The current plan is to embed RFID tags in a receipt portion of the I-94 form that would be distributed to visitors as they enter, and then scanned as they're leaving to verify that they're in compliance with their visa. Visitors would then be asked to retain those receipts to speed up processing on future visits to the United States.

But the spokeswoman cautions that because the initial rollout will be a test, it's possible Homeland Security eventually will settle on a different use of RFID should the I-94 receipt prove ineffective. As a result, people shouldn't worry about the program resulting in unwarranted detention of departing visitors. "We don't want to unnecessarily penalize people," the spokeswoman says. "We're just testing this to see if it is an option that we can use." She says the RFID chip in the I-94 receipts would not contain any personal data, but rather a unique ID number that would link to data stored on a secure server.