The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced a new biometric exit policy that will require photographing all noncitizens leaving the country beginning December 26, 2025. The rule expands facial-recognition tracking beyond entry points to include departures, covering visa holders, permanent residents, temporary workers, and even children.
The system is designed to strengthen national security and help identify visa overstays, but liberals, Democrats, and civil rights advocates are calling it racial profiling and a serious privacy concern.
Set to take effect in December, CBP expects full implementation at every airport and seaport within three to five years. The new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) exit-photo policy will apply to all non-U.S. citizens, including legal permanent residents, visa holders, and foreign nationals entering or leaving the United States.
According to the agency’s Federal Register filing, the program is intended to enhance national security, prevent terrorism, detect fraudulent travel documents, and better track visa overstays or incorrect traveler records.
Under the new system, non-citizens will be photographed at both entry and departure points through CBP’s Traveler Verification Service, which uses facial-recognition technology to match live images with existing government databases. Photos of foreign travelers will be stored in the Department of Homeland Security database for up to seventy-five years.
While U.S. citizens may opt out and request manual passport verification, CBP will automatically delete any citizen photos within twelve hours of confirming nationality. Non-citizens, however, will not be able to decline participation once the rule takes effect in December. Critics say this expansion represents a major shift toward biometric surveillance at U.S. borders and raises serious privacy concerns for travelers and long-term residents alike.
Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who has been outspoken in opposing the new biometric exit rule, released a statement through her public relations agency calling the measure “a major shift for immigrant rights” and emphasizing the need for transparency, fairness, and accountability.
“The government cannot treat every noncitizen the same without scrutiny of individual facts and context,” she said, urging constitutional safeguards and minimal disruption to lawful travel. Lincoln-Goldfinch added that collecting biometric data at both entry and exit “ushers in a new paradigm of enforcement surveillance that demands active legal oversight,” and that families deserve clear information on how their data will be stored and managed.
As is always the case, liberals do not provide alternative means of securing borders or guarding against illegal and fraudulent entries. Neither did they confront the Biden or Obama administrations for having open borders. In this case, their objections appear to be that this new rule marks a shift in immigration policy, which is true, and thank God. It will take a major shift to secure the border.
She also complained that “the government cannot treat every noncitizen the same without scrutiny of individual facts and context.” It’s just a photograph. People are not being jailed or punished, just photographed. It’s not that big of a deal. In fact, it’s far less invasive than being forced to take a COVID vaccine or to wear a mask during a twelve-hour flight.
She argued that this would be a disruption to lawful travel, but it won’t. It’s just a photograph. As long as people are willing to be photographed, they can travel lawfully as they always have. If they are unwilling to comply with immigration procedures, then by definition they are not engaging in lawful travel and will not be permitted entry. As a side note, most countries now, even Western democracies, require facial recognition, online screening, and often fingerprints at points of entry and exit.
Finally, she said that families deserve transparency. They have it. This policy has not only been published by the U.S. government but has also been covered in media outlets around the world. To claim that this lacks transparency is to ignore reality.
Objections raised by other activists include the claim that facial recognition has a 3% error margin. Of course, that is dramatically smaller than human error. With time, the error margin will likely decrease, making it an even more effective tool against illegal immigration and immigration fraud.
They also object on the grounds of cost-effectiveness, claiming the system wastes taxpayer money. In reality, the system will save countless man-hours and taxpayer dollars. Moreover, it will dramatically reduce visa and immigration fraud, producing a net savings for taxpayers. Finally, most conservative readers will probably react by saying, “Yes, this is exactly what I voted for.” It is not a waste of money. It is a necessary expense for national security.
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