CBP Brings Biometric Simplified Arrival System to Miami

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is continuing to expand its Simplified Arrival program. The automated passenger processing solution has now made its way to Miami International Airport (MIA). It is the fourth major airport to receive the technology in the past three months, following September and October deployments at San Francisco International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport.

The Simplified Arrival system uses facial recognition to identify travelers when they arrive in the United States. Those travelers will have their face scanned at the primary inspection point, and that photo will be matched against the image on a passport, a visa, or some other document. Foreign travelers who take advantage of the new system will no longer need to submit their fingerprints, though the collection of a biometric record is still a required part of the entry process for non-US citizens.

Anyone who cannot be matched (or anyone who wants to opt out of the facial recognition scan) will be sent to a CBP agent for a more traditional screening. The photos of US citizens will be stored for a period of 12 hours, while those of foreign nationals will be stored in a Department of Homeland Security database. The Simplified Arrival system enables contactless passenger screening, and runs on a facial recognition algorithm from NEC.

“We are proud to be able to provide the convenience of Simplified Arrival to all of our international passengers,” said MIA Director and CEO Lester Sola. “Since it was first deployed in our Concourse E facility in 2018, the expedited, touchless process has been screening as many as 10 passengers per minute. Now, clearing Customs for passengers throughout MIA is as easy as the click of a camera.”

More than a dozen US airports have now installed the Simplified Arrival system. CBP is also using facial recognition at land borders in New York and Michigan.

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November 24, 2020 – by Eric Weiss