This is customs, another layer in the security web. It doesn't have to be 100% effective to be worthwhile. Presumably people getting on the plane have been through the physical security checks.

It would be great if we could do the entry processing before they got on the plane, but that's not within our control since they're still on foreign soil at that point.

Every problem looks easy to someone that doesn't understand the constraints on the solution.

Make that 'in US custody on foreign soil', surely?
It happens in Canada and the Republic of Ireland on US-bound planes. Extending this to other airports would bring benefits to millions - and ensure that Cat Stevens gets to where he's going - so why not extend this now?

That physical security is meaningless, as the crew and the passengers themeselves don't believe it protects them. If they believed that the security had done their job right, we would not have cases where people are kicked off a plane after having gone through the security, and we would not have ha crew asking for F-14 escorts.

Technically when you pass through DHS in Canada at an airport, you have entered US Soil. If you want to go back outside the secure area, you have to pass through Canada Customs/Immigration as you "have been out of the country"

I don't believe this is correct. In the event of a cancelled flight or other reason to not take your flight, you are free to leave back through the US Immigration hall and go back into the terminal. I have done it many times.

Employees who work in the terminal pass back and forth without being inspected by either US or Canadian officials.

Also, the sterile area after pre-clearence is still considered Canadian soil - the US government has no authority there...actually, they don't even have authority in the Immigration or Customs area - if Immigration wants to bar you, or Customs finds something illegal in your luggage, they have to summon the Canadian police to intervene.

Are you kidding? Are you suggesting that everyone be fingerprinted as a prerequisite for boarding an airplane?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!

I might make an exception for those Americans (politicians and camp followers) who seem to believe believe such moves have a serious impact on 'security' (just to reassure them ).

So, how much will it cost to US to retrofit every international airport in the world where a flight from the US lands to have a completely seperate departure area only used for US-bound flights, and then how much will all of the expat work agreements with US government employees and contractors cost?

This is kind of like after 9/11 when Ma and Pa Kettle kept bleating about how there should be armed guards on all US flights. Most people grossly underestimate the number of airports and flights there are per day. I've asked many people this and most guess that there are "several thousand flights a day" with round numbers of less than 10,000. When I tell them it's closer to 30,000 just in the US (counting all of the puddle jumper flights) their eyes light up. You would need a workforce close to the size of the US Marine Corps to provide a couple of armed guards for every flight, and to put US customs at every foreign airport that has/might have a US-bound flight would be a truly enourmous undertaking.

It's done in Canada because, one, Canada is close and two, you don't have to spend a ton on BICE employees/contractors to live there. Also, a large portion of Canadian air traffic is US bound, so the economies of scale are there.

Just think about how much it would cost to build out and man a location that maybe has one US departure per day. Not just the pay of the BICE employees, but housing, car, medical, foreign taxes, per diem and/or monthly living allowances. Ex-pat agreements are expensive, even for the government. Just transporting household goods to and from a foreign posting can cost $10-15k easily.

Biometrics are not foolproof. There is ample evidence to show that it doesn't take much to defeat these systems. Can it help? Possibly, but it isn't the silver bullet that most people make it out to be.

You're referring to unattended biometrics such as keyless entry, where the user can play games with spoofing the system. A fingerprint scanner with a customs officer looking at you is almost impossible to beat.

My 5 year old son believes in Santa Claus, but that don't make him so.

My mother-in-law believes in government controlled medicine, but that don't mean it'll work.

Really? Someone should tell AMRIS since SABRE is fully biometrically protected in it's bunker in OK.

Also, AT&T (or whomever they are these days) should know since that's what they use too.

Terrorists have been known to use hotels and get on flights. What are we going to do? Blacklist every person who has ever been in that particular room or on a particular plane?

These measures deter basically diddly-squat, enrich the consultants and contractors, and create bigger haystacks in which to lose needles while losing even more hearts and minds of visitors (and even fellow US persons) who find themselves at the mercy of a confused, expensive system comprised of foolish persons, suspect data and even worse. Accenture and Booz Allen's "security" practice areas' employees will be cashing bigger checks and we'll be no safer than we were 5 years ago.

"Almost impossible" wrt fingerprint scanners? Not true. Even "attended biometrics" checking has been circumvented before. And the fingerprint-process that DHS is in love with has already failed once to prevent a person from entering the US who was supposed to be denied entry and caught by such things as the current incarnation of DHS fingerprinting.

The point of Yaatri's comment was that BICE/CBP checks of this sort do little to nothing for aviation security. Fingerprint data use as a law enforcement and intelligence tool? More utility for those purposes than for aviation security. Then again, this is just another attempt at casting a wide net and will be little more than a fishing expedition. And I have no blind faith that non-terrorist Americans will always be exempted from these procedures to control the movements of persons.