Page 28 - FCW, January 2016

Can U.S. border tech catch fake
passports?
Revelations about the Paris terrorist attacks have uncovered gaping differences in U.S. and European standards for passport security and raised concerns about our ability
to identify potential terrorists BY SEAN LYNGAAS
The terrorist attacks in Paris last November prompted debate in the United States on a number of policy issues, including passport security.
An apparently fake Syrian passport found near the body of one of the Paris attackers was reportedly used to travel throughout Europe. And all the Paris attackers who have been identified were citizens of Belgium and France — countries that are among the 38 that participate in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which is receiving fresh scrutiny from lawmakers.
During a Senate Homeland Security and Governmen- tal Affairs Committee hearing in November, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) argued that lawmakers should use the aftermath of the Paris attacks “as a moment of leverage with our visa waiver partners to insist on the same kind of biometric protections that we have in our passports for those passports.”
A bipartisan group of senators did just that by introduc- ing a bill in December that would tighten the biometric process used in the Visa Waiver Program.
26 January 2016 FCW.COM