To some, fingerprinting does seem to be over-the-top. But I recall what an older friend told me at an Athenaeum luncheon earlier this year.

"Who are these people coming to the US?"

I suspect that this is what most US citizens want to know. If people indeed are immigrating as aliens or tourists, why not have some kind of biometric identification in place?

I think it is a reasonable, although intrusive, part of modernity. The age of privacy has ended.