Army National Guard Spc. Gustavo Gutierrez, 23, of Las Cruces, N.M., scans the U.S./Mexico border from the top of Radar Hill, near Columbus, N.M., in June 2006. Norm Dettlaff/Las Cruces Sun-News via Associated Press
The U.S. government is expanding a program to capture the biometric data of tens of thousands of Central Americans and other migrants arrested in Mexico, gaining unprecedented access to Mexican immigration jails to identify criminals, gang members and potential terrorists long before they reach the U.S. border.
Operating in detention facilities in southern Mexico and here in the capital, Department of Homeland Security officials have installed scores of screening terminals to collect migrants’ fingerprints, ocular scans and other identifying features, including tattoos and scars.
President Trump recently blasted Mexico as doing “very little, if not nothing” to stop the flow of people across Mexican territory en route to the United States. While he later softened his tone, Trump has not acknowledged that Mexican authorities have, over the past several years, allowed the United States a wider view into the identities and backgrounds of those often headed for the border. U.S. authorities see this partnership as a potential model for other countries, and they are in talks with Central American nations to adopt similar measures.
The information gathered is immediately forwarded to DHS and other U.S. law enforcement and intelligence databases, alerting American officials if an individual in Mexican custody is a convicted criminal or in a category known as “Special…
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