Tourists face new security
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| A new screening process for many foreign visitors began yesterday. The system, seen here at a Dallas airport, takes photographs and fingerprints of arriving passengers and compares them to those on a terrorist database.
Associated Press |
The impact of the new rules on Hawai'i is expected to be minimal since the state's largest groups of foreign tourists, Japanese and Canadians, can enter the United States without the additional security procedures.
The Department of Homeland Security's United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program, or US-VISIT, took effect nationwide yesterday with the aim of using some of the latest surveillance technology to keep terrorists out of the country.
Under the new procedures, travelers press their index fingers onto an inkless scanner and then have their photograph taken as they make their way through customs.
The security checks target foreigners entering the 115 U.S. airports that handle international flights, as well as 14 major seaports. Travelers from most countries, including South Korea, China and Taiwan, are subject to the new checks.
Those from visa-waiver countries, including Japan, do not need visas to enter the United States and are exempt from the new procedures. Most Canadians are also not required to get visas.
The processing of visitors who will need to be photographed and fingerprinted in Hawai'i takes an additional 6 to 20 seconds, according to one government official. Other visa entry procedures still apply.
An estimated 15 people per overseas flight to Hawai'i may be affected by the new policy. About 50 machines in Hawai'i are being used to scan fingerprints and take digital photographs.
Customs officials can instantly check the traveler's identity against a database of terrorists and criminals. The traveler is then passed through or questioned.
Security procedures to be put in place later this year may have more of an impact. Starting Oct. 1, foreign visitors from visa-waiver countries must submit data electronically to have their visa requirements waived and not all countries may have the necessary equipment in place by the deadline.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the identification information being gathered is securely stored and made available only to officials and law-enforcement agencies on a need-to-know basis.
Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said yesterday "everything seemed to be going smoothly" with the system at Honolulu airport. Still, in tourism-dependent Hawai'i any additional process to travel into the state worries tourism officials.
Wienert called the new process "one more challenge for visitors coming from these non visa-waiver countries."
"I think only time will tell whether it ends up being a deterrent to our economic development or if it doesn't," she said.
Wienert said the state is working with Marketing Garden, its new tourism marketing contractor for Asia outside Japan, to inform visitors of the new procedures before they arrive.
Tour operators said the reaction of Hawai'i visitors to the new procedures has been mixed.
Marvin Chang, president of Chinese tour company Dragon Tours & Travel, said he heard the procedure was very fast.
"I don't think it's a negative thing, and it can only increase our security," Chang said.
But Lee Kim, secretary-general of the Korean Tourism Association of Hawai'i, said a traveler she talked to found the process "very embarrassing." The airport was not as congested as the visitor expected, but it was the first time he had to go through such procedures.
"It was a very bad experience for most of the travelers. They feel like they are being treated like a criminal," Kim said.
A new exit process requiring travelers to verify their identity before leaving the country is in the trial stage and is expected to be implemented widely later this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470, or kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
