Feds to Check More Migrant IDs at Sea

The government is expanding a test program that matches fingerprints and photographs of illegal immigrants intercepted at sea with a federal database, U.S. officials announced Wednesday.

The “biometrics-at-sea” program has been used since November 2006 in the dangerous Mona Pass between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. It will be used by Coast Guard vessels operating out of South Florida in spring 2008, said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Wayne Justice.

“We’ve gotten the concept down in the Mona Pass,” Justice said at a news conference. “We’re taking a measured approach to expansion.” “*

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