U.S. gathers biometric data on migrants in Mexican jails

The U.S. government is expanding a program to capture the biometric data of tens of thousands of Central Americans and other migrants arrested in Mexico, gaining unprecedented access to Mexican immigration jails to identify criminals, gang members and potential terrorists long before they reach the U.S. border. Operating in detention facilities in southern Mexico and here in the capital, Department of Homeland Security officials have installed scores of screening terminals to collect migrants’ fingerprints, ocular scans and other identifying features, including tattoos and scars. The information gathered is immediately forwarded to DHS and other U.S. law enforcement and intelligence databases, alerting American officials if an individual in Mexican custody is a convicted criminal or in a category known as “Special Interest Aliens,” which includes potential extremists, according to current and former U.S. officials who described the program on the condition of anonymity. “These are bilateral programs that build Mexican capacity in a way that benefits our security,” said an official from the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, which has budgeted $75 million to install the scanning equipment at immigration jails across Mexico and deliver mobile terminals that can transmit biometric data from almost anywhere...MORE