Mexico Border

Mexico Border Scans Net Criminals, No Terrorists

Fingerprint scanners deployed on the U.S.-Mexican border to detect terrorism suspects have caught no would-be bombers but thousands of other criminals, including murderers, kidnappers and sex offenders. Border Patrol agents have snared 33,000 criminals -- most of them along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico -- since the digital fingerprinting system linking immigration and FBI databases went live nationwide in early September.

"It has not only enhanced their ability to detect immigration offenses but also to apprehend suspects wanted for serious crimes such as homicide, kidnapping and sex offenses," U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mario Villarreal said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began cross-referencing the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, to help secure the United States from terrorist attack.

The U.S.-Mexico border was widely seen as a soft spot in U.S. security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Border policing was tightened with extra agents and new technology but so far officials have not announced the capture of a single terror suspect.

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