Freedom

Using illegals to justify National ID System

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recently hailed the agency's new fingerprint identity system for leading to the arrest of more than 23,500 people nationwide with criminal records. But an El Paso immigrant advocate worries that the new technology will simply be used to keep people out of the country rather than providing speedier access for those seeking to cross international checkpoints legally. Almost 10 percent of the arrests made using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System between September and November were made in the El Paso sector, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said. The fingerprint system "allows us to fulfill a critical element of securing our nation's borders," Mosier said. "That is a luxury that we have not experienced in the past." Posted by Editor at December 29, 2004 09:58 AM