Sunday, July 10, 2005

Biometric Visa-Waiver Program
Steve Forbes has hit the nail on the head in this piece regarding the United States immigration and visa policies. Neither one of us can understand why the US "can't come up with software and hardware to expeditiously assist in determining who should and should not gain entry." It sounds to me like a problem that could be solved pretty easily by using fingerprints or retinal scans, instead of the current clumsy system involving mountains of paperwork and delays.

Now I am not going to argue whether or not we need more technology workers from foreign countries or whether US technology firms are being put at a disadvantage by not being able to fill their ranks with foreign-born workers. Those are arguments that do not conveniently fit in a blog. Though I do believe that hastening the process of determining who enters and leaves this country is growing ever more important, especially in light of what happened this week on the London subways. I think it is obvious that as the nation that has produced both the Mac and Windows software we should also be able to develop the software and hardware needed for a biometric system to assist in guarding our borders.

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