An update on the million dollar facial recognition system
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), sees approximately 8- thousand people cross daily through the San Luis Port of Entry, and that’s not during their peak time.
Roughly in the wintertime when harvesting kicks up, officials said they see 5-thousand to 11-thousand pedestrians cross daily.
October will mark one year since the $6 million-dollar facial recognition has been installed at the port of entry. Assistant Port Director, Chris Leon, with CBP, said the system has been effective in detecting those who try to cross with false documentation.
“To date for the state of Arizona, we have had over 157 people that we’ve detected with the facial recognition,” said Leon.”
The San Luis Port of entry is the second busiest non-commercial port in all of Arizona. Director Leon said that CBP has to continue to advance with technology. He adds CBP officials have come across multiple different cases.
“From people with criminal histories, with felonies, criminal records, or simply a person trying to obtain trying to come into this country for reasons unknown of,” said Leon.
News 11 has reported in the past of the long border- wait times at the port of entry, but Director Leon said that people are crossing with legal permanent residency cards that have no expiration date so that the system can’t be scanned through the system.
“We encourage the community to sign up for programs like sentri, the minimal time spent waiting in line for 5, 10, to 15 minutes in comparison to other wait times,” said Leon.
