WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee is calling for the United States to adopt border-control booths similar to those used in Europe, where biometric data — including facial scans — is collected from foreign travelers entering and leaving the country as part of a broader push to strengthen counterterrorism safeguards.
The recommendation appears in a 66-page report prepared by Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), which examines the implementation of 9/11 Commission proposals ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Similar to the Schengen Area in Europe, foreign nationals traveling to the United States should pass control booths at points of entry at admission and departure, enabling the U.S. to track who is in the country, for how long, why, and when they leave,” the committee said.
The panel argued that modern technology has made biometric screening far more efficient. “Technological advancements make collecting biometric data at points of entry relatively quick and easy. As much as practically possible, U.S. borders should be secured to ensure foreign nationals seeking land exits to pass through land points of entry so CBP can collect biometrics and build profiles,” the report stated.
Lawmakers highlighted land crossings as a major gap, noting that travelers entering from Canada or Mexico are not consistently subject to facial scanning. The report also said U.S. airports do not currently conduct facial scans of outbound passengers, complicating efforts to confirm whether a foreign national has actually left the country.
The 9/11 Commission recommended in 2004 that federal authorities “quickly complete a biometric entry-exit screening system, one that also speeds qualified travelers.” Two decades later, the committee noted, that system has still not been fully put in place.
According to the commission’s findings, at least two — and possibly as many as eight — of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks used fraudulent or altered passports.
After the attacks, commissioners warned that a terrorist could evade electronic identity checks by discarding an old passport and making slight changes to a name on a new document. Biometric identifiers such as faces, fingerprints and irises, they argued, are far harder to disguise or replace.
“The current system fails to sufficiently allow for effective identification and removal of foreign terrorist or intelligence operatives. In the 21st century, the lack of a fully automated biometric entry/exit system impedes efforts to address this issue,” Stefanik and Gottheimer wrote.
The new report chronicles the slow progress to setting up a comprehensive system.
“In October 2025, [US Customs and Border Protection] amended its regulations to allow DHS to require photographs from all noncitizens arriving and departing the United States; DHS previously only fielded biometric exit pilot programs at 15 air or seaports,” the report says.
The exit scans at airports have not been fully implemented, according to the assessment.
“Challenges remain with collecting land-entry biometrics on incoming vehicles, but CBP is currently piloting facial recognition technology for travelers entering the U.S. in personally owned or commercial vehicles,” the report adds.
“Conversely, exit systems have historically proven especially difficult to implement, and the U.S. has not fully implemented a biometric exit screening system at any point of entry category.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
