A new provision in the immigration reform bill requires all foreigners leaving the U.S. from certain busy airports to undergo fingerprint checks.
The bill requires the Homeland Security Department to set up finger print scanners at America’s 10 busiest airports within two years, and will eventually grow to include 20 more busy airports.
The goal of the fingerprinting provision is to keep foreign citizens from remaining in the U.S. with expired visas. Of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, it is estimated that 40% stay in the country with invalid visas.
The bill does, however, provide a path to citizenship for these undocumented immigrants.
This decision comes after the Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment that demanded more extensive biometric identity checks, such as facial recognition and iris scans, which would have cost the US an estimated $25 billion.