CBP’s Biometric Screening Program Reaches Douglas and Naco Land Borders in Arizona

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has brought the Simplified Arrival program to two more land border crossings in Arizona. The facial recognition system has now been installed at the Douglas and Naco Ports of Entry.

Under the new system, travelers will pause to have their photo taken when they arrive at a pedestrian border crossing. That new photo will then be compared to an image stored in a Department of Homeland Security database to verify that person’s identity. Those who cannot be identified will be directed to a border agent for a manual inspection, as will US citizens who decide to opt out of the facial recognition scan.

The Douglas and Naco Ports currently process more than 800,000 travelers on an annual basis. Simplified Arrival has already been introduced at several Southern border crossings in the past few years, including the San Luis crossing in Arizona. The technology also debuted at California’s Andrade and Calexico land borders in December and February, respectively.

The news reflects CBP’s growing interest in facial recognition. The agency has been aggressively expanding the scope of the Simplified Arrival program in recent months, bringing the technology to preclearance locations in Canada and the Caribbean, and to Northern land borders in Buffalo and Detroit.

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March 2, 2021 – by Eric Weiss