Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said that biometric exit could be deployed in the US as soon as 2018.Speaking to a Senate panel, Johnson said the nessecary biometric tech could be tested and implemented in key airports by that year.He was answering a question by Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who asked Johnson about a pilot project underway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to test the use of facial recognition technology on exiting visitors.That trial is piloting how Customs and Border Protection systems work with facial comparison technology to process images of travelers leaving the U.S. CBP officials said the test targets passengers between the ages of 14 and 79 leaving the airport on a single daily flight to Japan. The trial is set to last until Sept. 30.Last week, DHS also issued a long-awaited request for information on a Biometric Exit Programme. The RFI, issued by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), explains that CBP intends to add biometrics to confirm when foreign nationals are departing the United States. “An effective immigration system requires an end-to-end process that collects exit data and matches that to entry data. Without exit data, there is no meaningful way to determine whether foreign nationals have overstayed their periods of admission”, writes the RFI.In the request, the CBP writes that it intends to add biometric confirmation for foreign nationals in all air and sea international departures, noting that federal legislation mandates that DHS deploy a biometric exit program. “The goal of a biometric exit program is to ensure that a traveler could not depart as an imposter (i.e., use someone else's travel documents/identity when departing) or have someone depart on his or her behalf (i.e., someone else uses the supposed traveler's documents). Biometrics offer a greater degree of assurance that the individual departing the United States is who he or she claims to be”.

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