U.S. Delivers New Biometric Technology to INM To Help Strengthen Mexico’s Southern Border

U.S. Delivers New Biometric Technology to INM To Help Strengthen Mexico’s Southern Border

Mexico City, November 3, 2011 — U.S. Ambassador Anthony Wayne and National Migration Institute Commissioner Salvador Beltrán del Río today presided over the official delivery of four biometric kiosks to Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM), part of the overall equipment delivery under the Merida Initiative. The four kiosks will be on display in Mexico City this week before being deployed to four points of entry along Mexico’s southern border.

Ambassador Wayne said, “I want to congratulate the INM, and the Merida team working with them, for their commitment to putting this new technology to use. Biometric technology is an incredibly useful tool to enhance border security, an important goal for the region, and the delivery of these first four kiosks is a significant step toward that goal.”

In 2009, through the Merida Initiative, the U.S. Embassy initiated deliveries of biometric equipment along the Mexican southern border.  A prototype machine was delivered providing biometric gathering capabilities at seven sites across the southern border.  These devices allow Mexican immigration officers to verify with much greater certainty the identification of temporary travelers and workers via fingerprint, iris, and facial analysis. 

The U.S. Embassy and the INM are proud to announce that the lessons learned from the biometric prototype have culminated in the design and production of the first biometric kiosks in Mexico (see attached picture). 

The INM commissioner stated that these four kiosks represent two years of collaboration under the Merida Initiative. “This has been and continues to be a truly bilateral effort.  We are certain that the cooperation we have achieved with the United States will lead us to have more secure and orderly borders,” said Commissioner Beltrán.

Under the Merida Initiative, the Government of Mexico’s biometric identification program has advanced significantly, both in equipment procurement and training.  With funding totaling $58 million, the Merida Initiative biometric program will help GOM agencies to: 

• Build a robust IT network which will support Mexico’s ability to track persons entering Mexico via air, land, sea, and at interior INM checkpoints, as well as identify individuals in immigration detention centers who might pose a threat to national security;
• Secure auxiliary equipment, including passport, fingerprint, iris and facial scan readers necessary to implement biometric standards;
• Provide tactical training, communications, medical supplies and search and rescue equipment to assist Mexican immigration authorities in rescue operations along Mexico’s southern border (and eventually northern) border.

Bilateral cooperation based upon the principles of shared responsibility, mutual trust and respect to each country´s jurisdiction is fundamental to fighting transnational organized crime.  The United States and Mexico remain committed to this common effort.