A report last week from the Government Accountability Office stated that officials had concluded that "for various reasons, a biometric ... exit capability cannot now be implemented without incurring a major impact" on economically vital traffic flows at border crossings.

The exit capability for U.S.-VISIT, the new system built to confirm the identity of foreigners visiting the country using fingerprints, is a congressional mandate, although there is no deadline in the law, and a report on its implementation is overdue and will be presented to Congress in January, according to the department.

Officials say that their priority for U.S.-VISIT remains preventing potential terrorists from entering -- rather than being an exit system to confirm that legitimate visitors left on time or helping track illegal immigrants and others that deliberately overstay.

"There's a common sense reason for that," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters Friday. "Ask yourself, what's more important: keeping a terrorist out in the first place, or having a terrorist come in and finding out that he hasn't left after 90 days?"

Advocates for the exit portion of the system like to point out that several of the Sept. 11 hijackers were among the thousands that over-stay their visas every year.

But Chertoff turned that around. Considering that the hijackers "left by committing suicide," he said, "it seemed pretty obvious to us the first priority is to keep them out in the first place."

In line with that priority, officials say, their first order of business for upgrading U.S.-VISIT is to move to using ten fingerprints, instead of two as at present.

Currently, almost all foreigners arriving by air or sea who are not so-called Green Card holders -- legal permanent residents -- and most visa holders and other third-country nationals arriving at the land ports of entry are checked by U.S.-VISIT.

Visa holders are enrolled in the system when they apply at U.S. embassies, and other visitors, such as those from the 27 visa-waiver nations that can enter for 90 days without a visa, are enrolled the first time they come to the United States. Thereafter, their fingerprints are used to confirm that they are the same person issued the visa, or allowed entry without one before.

By collecting all 10 prints, Chertoff said recently, U.S. authorities would be able to leverage a treasure trove of so-called latent prints collected from terrorist safe-house, bomb fragments, and other places, to help keep out terrorists whose names might unknown.

Officials say the entry portion of U.S.-VISIT has been one of the Department of Homeland Security's rare successes -- catching dozens of criminals and other immigration violators in the years since it was rolled out -- though they have not been able to point to a single definite apprehension or interdiction of a terrorist.

But the exit portion of the system has languished, and last week's report from the Government Accountability Office was the latest in a series that have found it wanting.

Officials say they still believe that a biometric exit system can be successfully deployed at air and sea ports.

"We can develop a cost-effective (exit) system (at air and sea posts)," Department of Homeland Security Spokesman Jarrod Agen told United Press International. "It is a more controlled environment, and the technological and infrastructural challenges are not as expansive. They are more manageable" than land border-crossing points.

Agen said the department had not "abandoned the idea" of an exit portion to the system at land border crossings. "We'll be working with Congress to explain our strategies for air and sea exit" systems, and "lay out the ways we might deploy and implement" a land exit portion, alongside "the costs of doing that and the risk reduction it buys," he said.

The problem, say some observers, is that with current technology it is not possible to biometrically confirm the identity of each individual leaving the country by road without massive disruption.

"At this point, it's not an option," said Angelo Amador, director of immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, saying infrastructure and resource limitations, plus traffic volume, would effectively stymie any effort.

"Stopping (every vehicle) to find out who's leaving (with a fingerprint scan) is basically impossible," Amador said.

Moreover, data from the Government Accountability Office report shows that even a non-biometric alternative, which reads a radio signal from a chip embedded in the documentation issued to incoming foreigners, was essentially unworkable.

At a recent event for contractors interested in supplying technology for U.S. border security, officials said they planned to begin rolling out 10-print technology next year, but that it would be as long as three-and-a-half years before the deployment was complete.

An official authorized to speak to the media at the department's U.S.-VISIT program office said the overdue report to Congress would provide "a comprehensive exit strategy," and should be sent to the Hill in January.

But the official said the report, which was currently being reviewed "at a departmental level" in homeland security, would also have to be submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for inter-agency review.

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