Biometric Entry Program Busts Another 26-Year-Old Woman from Ghana

“Face-scanning systems are now in place at a number of airports across the US, but they’re mostly for the CBP’s Biometric Exit program, using biometrics to track individuals leaving the US. Washington Dulles International Airport is the first to turn this technology on arriving travelers.”

The US Customs and Border Protection agency is boasting of another bust of an impostor trying to travel through the Washington Dulles International Airport.

It was the third such bust in the 40 days that Washington Dulles’ biometric facial recognition technology for international arrivals has been in operation, with the CBP publicizing each instance as it seeks to make the case for its escalating biometric border control program. Face-scanning systems are now in place at a number of airports across the US, but they’re mostly for the CBP’s Biometric Exit program, using biometrics to track individuals leaving the US. Washington Dulles International Airport is the first to turn this technology on arriving travelers.

It is perhaps worth bearing in mind the CBP’s eagerness to publicize its program’s success when considering the circumstances of the most recent busts. The previous one, announced in early September, concerned a 26-year-old woman arriving via a flight from Accra, Ghana, who falsely claimed to be a returning American citizen before the biometric scan determined that her face did not match the one in her passport. This latest bust, according to an announcement from the CBP, concerns a “26 year-old Cameroonian woman arrived on a flight from Accra, Ghana, which had originated from Johannesburg, South Africa,” with the CBP again reporting that the suspect presented herself as an American citizen.

Of course, in commenting on this latest bust, CBP Baltimore Field Office Director Casey Durst did not address the incredible coincidence, framing it only as “yet another example of the effectiveness of the facial comparison system we are using to help us detect criminals, terrorists or imposters attempting to enter our country.”

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October 4, 2018 – by Alex Perala