The Department of Homeland Security is asking airlines to assume the cost of fingerprinting all 33 million foreigners who visit the United States each year. The airlines say, no way:
Congress requires that all foreigners “coming into U.S. airports be fingerprinted when they arrive and leave the country but did not specify who should take the prints. The Homeland Security Department, which currently fingerprints foreigners coming into U.S. airports, wants airlines to be responsible for taking fingerprints as these travelers leave … ‘This is a government function, not to be outsourced to the private sector,’ said Ken Dunlap, security chief for IATA North America. The association represents 240 airlines worldwide.”
