CBP Brings Biometric Simplified Arrivals Program to Dallas

The Simplified Arrival system has made its way to another US airport. The contactless screening program is now available to passengers arriving at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in Texas.

Simplified Arrival is run by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and uses facial recognition to match a traveler’s face to an image that has already been submitted to CBP. That image will usually be the photo on a document like a passport or a visa, while the photo used for the live comparison will be taken when the traveler arrives at a DFW inspection point.

The technology is expected to reduce the amount of time needed to process each passenger. To that end, foreign nationals who have visited the US on a previous occasion will no longer need to submit their fingerprints, since the facial recognition match will suffice.

“We are proud to bring Simplified Arrival to DFW,” said CBP Field Operations Director Jud Murdock. “With this program, CBP has reduced the need to capture fingerprints and handle travel documents thus minimizing the direct contact between our officers and the public.”

Passengers who cannot be verified with Simplified Arrival will be directed to a CBP agent for manual processing. US citizens can also opt out of the Simplified Arrival system, in which case they will similarly be directed to an agent for more traditional screening. The photos of US citizens who opt into the program will be deleted after 12 hours.

Simplified Arrival comes to Dallas less than a month after it was deployed at San Francisco International Airport. The system has now been installed in a dozen cities (including Detroit and Houston), where it has been used to screen more than 53 million passengers and led to the capture of nearly 300 imposters since it debuted in 2018.

DFW also offers biometric boarding for people departing from the airport.

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October 26, 2020 – by Eric Weiss