Homeland insecurity

The NY Times reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland InSecurity has given up efforts to see whether foreign visitors leave the U.S. when their visas expire.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 — In a major blow to the Bush administration’s efforts to secure borders, domestic security officials have for now given up on plans to develop a facial or fingerprint recognition system to determine whether a vast majority of foreign visitors leave the country, officials say.

Domestic security officials had described the system, known as U.S. Visit, as critical to security and important in efforts to curb illegal immigration. Similarly, one-third of the overall total of illegal immigrants are believed to have overstayed their visas, a Congressional report says.

Frankly, I don't see what's so difficult. Put their name (or passport number) and the date they are supposed to leave in a data bank at the time they pass through immigration on arrival. Put their name in the data bank when they pass through immigration on departure. Compare the two lists. Any laptop computer can do that. The names that don't have a match are still here. What's all this stuff about facial and fingerprint recognition? Am I missing something?

Meanwhile, we're going to sit around twiddling our thumbs and ignoring those who overstay their welcome.