Visitors from Europe get more U.S. scrutiny

By Charlie Savage The Boston Globe

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2006

WASHINGTON Department of Homeland Security officials are considering requiring European travelers to keep their fingerprints on file with the United States if they want to visit the country without a visa.

The proposal is one of a series of measures being developed by the department's policy office in response to a growing fear that terrorism may originate in Western Europe rather than the Middle East. Requiring Europeans to register their fingerprints would minimize the chances of passport fraud, which security specialists believe is a growing danger.

"We're moving to an area where international travelers' fingerprints are going to be part of their identifier," said Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy in the Department of Homeland Security.

Baker, whose office develops long-term policies, said a decision was not imminent on the proposal to require Europeans to register their fingerprints. But he is considering it as a way to protect against terrorists with European backgrounds.

Currently, much of Europe is exempt from the rule that foreign visitors must obtain a visa, a process that involves a background check, fingerprinting and a face-to-face interview. Originally designed to block illegal immigration, the U.S. visa system makes an exception for visitors from 27 affluent countries, mostly in Western Europe.

As security concerns have shifted to terrorism, however, the risk from Europe has grown because of its large and poorly integrated Muslim population. Last year, Islamist extremists born in England bombed the London Underground, a Belgian woman who converted to Islam committed a suicide bombing in Iraq, and angry Muslim youths rioted across France for weeks.

"Our visa waiver program was built on the assumption that the biggest worry we have about people who come here on tourist visa is that they may stay and take jobs, so the assumption was, for wealthy countries, we could afford to do without the visa process," Baker said. "The problem is, that's not the worst thing people can do now, and Al Qaeda has made no secret of its hope that it can recruit people who are Western."

Indeed, some critics argued that the United States should require all Europeans to obtain visas to screen out potential terrorists. Visa officials can reject applicants who arouse suspicions during an interview, even if their papers are in order.

"Today, there are about 15 million Muslims that now inhabit European countries," said Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, at a 2004 House hearing on the program. "How exactly are we safer by not having a visa program in place for countries that have huge populations of people that we are concerned about?"

But most security specialists believe the United States cannot force all Europeans to get visas. Two-thirds of U.S. overseas visitors come from visa waiver countries - more than 10 million travelers a year. It would cost far too much to interview each traveler, specialists say, and it would discourage tourism.