Smile! Uncle Sam wants to scan your face on the way in – and out

Noncitizens, prepare to have your mugshot stored for up to 75 years

Planning to visit the United States in the near future? If so, get ready to have your picture taken – and stored for decades – upon both entry and exit under a new Customs and Border Protection rule.

The final rule was published on Monday, and expands the Department of Homeland Security's policy of collecting biometric data (primarily in the form of a photograph) to begin requiring photographs at points of exit as well as entry. While the department's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has been collecting biometric data from foreign visitors to the US since 2004, "there is no comprehensive system in place to collect biometrics from aliens departing the country," it said.

"This rule simply amends DHS regulations to provide that DHS may require all aliens to be photographed when entering or exiting the United States," CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Hilton Beckham told The Register.

CBP wrote that requiring photographs of foreigners on entry and exit to the US would help prevent terrorism, limit the fraudulent use of travel documents, and identify anyone who attempts to leave the US beyond their authorized stay in the country.

It's not clear if DHS will detain individuals planning to leave if the new system catches them departing after their visa has expired, though the US previously pushed for illegal immigrants to self-deport, making it somewhat illogical to apprehend those attempting to get on the right side of US immigration law.

The rule is also lifting age restrictions on storing biometric data. Under the prior rule, people under 14 and over 79 were exempted from having their data collected at entry and exit points. The rule removes those restrictions, "as the use of biometrics has expanded beyond criminal history background checks and now plays a vital role in identity verification and management, and combating the trafficking of children."

Visitors should expect their images to linger in a government database for as long as they're alive, or maybe longer. Per the rule, noncitizen visitors to the US can expect their records to be retained for "up to" 75 years.

Citizens are allowed to opt out under the new rule, but if they do get snapped, the feds will only store their photos for 12 hours if nothing is amiss, the rule notes.

Trust the algorithm

As detailed on CBP's web page about its use of biometrics, the primary technology at play here is the Traveler Verification Service (TVS), a cloud-based facial biometric comparison product that compares live photographs of travelers with images from their travel documents.

Per the rule, it's TVS making the determination whether a traveler is a US citizen and deciding how long to store their data and making other determinations before flagging agents that something is amiss.

"Manual review of passports has historically been used to carry out this responsibility, but facial comparison technology can do so with greater consistency and accuracy," Beckham told us.

Not everyone is convinced the system will work, based on public comments on the new rule. According to one posted anonymously, an exit photograph taken in 2024 led to them being mistakenly identified as someone who had a DUI arrest, leading to them almost being turned away at the border when visiting the US earlier this year.

"I never thought that I would be prone to this sort of identity mix up, and this has only happened since the facial recognition technology was implemented," they said. "Facial recognition technology is prone to error, yet Customs and Border Protection Agents trust it implicitly."

The poster added that they're a white person, but the comment asserts that such technology is even more error-prone for individuals with dark skin or those who wear head coverings (i.e. Muslims and Sikhs).

False flagging is a well-established problem with facial-recognition systems despite Beckham's claim that such systems identify people "with greater consistency and accuracy" than human agents. One researcher testified in 2023 that faical recognition systems used by London's Metropolitan Police showed more false positives for Black people, and a 2024 study by the United States General Services Administration found similar problems with unreliability and racial bias.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been under fire for using facial recognition software on mobile devices to identify potential illegal immigrants, with Democratic elected officials expressing concern that ICE's software, developed with little oversight, may not be reliable.

Nonetheless, CBP is undeterred in its mission to automate the identification of potential violators of US immigration law.

"CBP must be able to conclusively determine whether a person is in fact a US citizen or national, or an alien," Beckham explained. "DHS is following the law by developing and implementing a comprehensive biometric entry/exit system to match records of aliens entering and departing the United States." ®