US trials RFID tags to track land border crossings

The US is to begin trials of RFID-chipped visa documents next month to remotely record vehicles and foot passengers entering and leaving the country at land border crossing points.

The proof of concept pilot - at five test sites in the states of Arizona, Washington and New York - will run through to March 2006. If it is successful the US government aims to use the technology at the 50 busiest land border posts by the end of 2007.

As part of the trial thousands of US visa holders will be issued an I-94 arrival and departure document embedded with a passive RFID chip and antenna.

When the individual passes through the entry and exit lanes of a land border post, a unique ID number on the chip will automatically be read and used to retrieve the individual's immigration information for border control officers.

The project is being run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and one of the main goals is to more accurately record who is entering and leaving the US across land routes without increasing waiting times for travellers.

Jim Williams, director of the US Visit programme at the DHS, told silicon.com today at the Global Border Control Technology Summit in London that the aim of the pilot is to see whether the RFID tags can be read in cars travelling at up to 45 miles per hour and whether the system can read 55 tags from a busload of passengers all at the same time.

"The goal is to take that RFID technology and apply it to all 900 vehicle lanes entering and leaving the country. It can also check people on foot - from the time the person has walked through the door up to the immigration officer it will say whether that person is on a watch list," he said.

Williams said that if the RFID tags work then in future this could also be used in conjunction with a biometric check at mobile kiosks at border crossing points.

GPS and active RFID tags were considered for the project but ruled out on privacy grounds because they would provide the government with the ability to conduct location-based surveillance.

The passive RFID chips used in the trials will not be encrypted and will not contain any personal details. Williams said the chips will only carry a unique ID number many digits long that points to a record on the immigration database.