U.S. airlines are protesting a plan that would require them to take fingerprints of foreign travelers as they fly out of the country because doing so could create massive lines, reports USA Today. Congress has required that the 33 million foreigners a year coming into U.S. airports be fingerprinted when they arrive and leave the country. Cleverly, perhaps, it did not specify who should take the prints. The Homeland Security Department, which currently fingerprints foreigners coming into U.S. airports, wants airlines to be responsible for taking fingerprints as these travelers leave. The airlines are balking. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged the White House to kill the plan. “This is a government function, not to be outsourced to the private sector,” said Ken Dunlap, security chief for IATA North America. One insider says the airlines are likely to win this one. “Carriers are pulling out all the stops to kill” the proposal, said Stewart Verdery, a former Homeland Security assistant secretary for border and transportation policy. “My guess is they’re going to be successful.”
