The United States Department of Homeland Security along with the Department of Justice announced last week that integrated ten-print biometric identification technology is operating in every US Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol station throughout the country.

This new capability allows Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents to simultaneously search the FBI’s fingerprint database.  The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) and DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) can identify individuals’ outstanding criminal warrants through electronic comparison of ten-print digital fingerscans against a nationwide database of previously obtained fingerprints.

The IDENT/IAFIS program began as a pilot in the San Diego Border Patrol Sectors Brown Field Station and the Calexico Port of Entry in August 2001.  By the end of 2003, the program was installed at 31 Border Patrol Stations and 48 ports of entry. 

Last week, the IDENT/IAFIS program became fully operational within all 148 Border Patrol stations and is in the process of being deployed to all the ports of entry nationwide.  As part of US-VISIT deployment, all 115 air and sea ports of entry and the busiest 50 land border ports of entry will have this capability by November 15, 2004.

According to a recent press release, CBP Border Patrol agents have arrested 138 homicide suspects; 67 kidnapping suspects; 226 sexual assault suspects; 431 robbery suspects; 2,342 suspects for assaults of other types; and 4,801 suspected traffickers of narcotics as a result of IAFIS technology.