Border checkpoint scans eyes, faces of departing foreigners

The US government announced today it is using eye scans and facial recognition technology for the first time to verify the identities of foreigners leaving the United States on foot at a busy San Diego border crossing with Mexico, the latest move to close a longstanding security gap.
Border officials in December started collecting the same information on non-citizens walking into the US through the checkpoint connecting Tijuana and San Diego. The checkout system that launched Feb. 11 aims to ensure those who enter the country leave on time and identify those who stay after their visas expire.
Up to half of the people in the US illegally are believed to have overstayed their visas.

Congress has long demanded biometric screening such as fingerprints, facial images or eye scans from people leaving the country, but the task poses enormous financial and logistical challenges. Privacy advocates worry the data could be misused or fall into the wrong hands.
Before now, foreigners who left the country were rarely checked by authorities before walking into Mexico or Canada at ports of entry. Cameras have started photographing the eye and facial features of non-citizens leaving the country through the Otay Mesa port of entry to verify their identities on their documents.
Authorities are using the trial runs to determine which technology, face or eye scans, is the fastest, most accurate and least intrusive in screening people coming and going at all land crossings along the 1,954-mile (3,145-kilometer) border with Mexico. Final results are expected this summer, with the goal of expanding the checks to all land, air and sea ports.

For now, the trial run will focus only on foreigners, but it's uncertain in the future whether the program would expand to US citizens.
Foreigners checked at the border who have overstayed their visas will be allowed to continue on to Mexico, with a note on their record, said Charmaine Rodriguez, assistant port director of the Otay Mesa cargo facility. Those with criminal records or warrants could be detained.
Federal officials say they will not share or retain the data collected in the trial runs, but it is not clear how the information will be used if the program is adopted border-wide.