Effective January 05, 2003, government inspectors will require fingerprints and photographs of visitors with visas arriving at US airports and seaports. According to Federal authorities the US-VISIT program is being implemented to stop the terrorists from entering the US.

US-VISIT programs will be put into effective at all 115 US airports and 14 US seaports that receive international passengers. Effective December 31, 2004, 50 major US land border crossings will also begin the program and the system will be employed all other US land borders by December 31, 2005. This program will not affect US citizens and permanent residents, however millions of other visitors with visas will be photographed and have their index fingers electronically fingerprinted, besides having to answer the usual questions from US immigration officials.

The fingerprints and photographs will be matched with the government database containing criminal and terrorist records to verify the visitor’s identity.

The Washington Post is reporting that President Bush plans to kick off his re-election bid by proposing an immigration program, which would make it easier for the immigrants to work legally in the U.S. The administration also wants to provide for an avenue for some undocumented workers in the US to move towards legal status. To make the immigration program acceptable to conservatives, the administration will include strict entry control at US borders and better enforcement of current visa restrictions and reporting requirements.

The estimated number of undocumented people residing in U.S. is 8 million; at least half of this undocumented population is from Mexico. At his year-end conference, President Bush said that he is against blanket amnesty or mass legalization of the undocumented population in the US, however, he is preparing recommendations to send to Congress for a policy that helps willing employers to meet willing employees.

Official details about the proposal are not available but the new immigration program will draw on a bill introduced by Sen. John McCain that would create a Web based electronic job registry system, run by the Labor Department where employers would post job opportunities available first for U.S. workers and then to immigrant workers who would be allowed to immigrate under a new visa category for temporary workers. The second half of the program would focus on providing some kind of legal status to undocumented workers.

The major concern regarding the plan is that it should not penalize people who followed the rules and reward those who do not. To mitigate this problem, McCain’s plan creates a new visa category for undocumented workers. This would allow undocumented workers to stay in the U.S. for 3 years legally. Then the worker may apply for a temporary worker visa, which would be the path to a green card or legal permanent resident status. This would give a 3-year advantage for workers who entered the US legally.