After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. administration introduced new control procedures for those entering the country. Since January 5 of this year, under the "US-VISIT" program, immigration service officers began taking fingerprints of foreigners entering and leaving the United States, as well as photographing them. The obtained data were checked against the list of terrorists and criminals in an electronic database.
However, the authorities encountered problems in tracking whether citizens of other countries left the United States on time. For example, according to Bill Strassberger, an official spokesman for the Secretary of Homeland Security, about 35-40% of illegal immigrants remain in the country after the expiration of their visa. Now, electronic kiosks will be installed in 11 international airports and two sea terminals, which will read data from the passport of a departing passenger, take fingerprints and take a digital photo, and also issue a receipt stating that the foreigner has completed their stay in the United States.
Currently, such systems are operating on a trial basis at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the international seaport terminal in Miami. If a departing person does not want to "communicate" with the machine, a US-VISIT program officer will conduct an identity check.