Coast Guard program successfully collecting biometric data at sea.

• Position: SECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Brief

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BALTIMORE -- The Coast Guard is claiming success in a pilot program that allows it to collect fingerprints from would-be illegal migrants interdicted at sea, check them against on-shore databases and then prosecute repeat offenders to dissuade others from making the same journey.

The maritime biometric identification program began in November last year and has captured and collected information of more than 1,000 migrants during its first 10 months in the Mona Pass, a 90-mile stretch of water between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

About 200 suspects showed up on databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. Of those, 70 were turned over to a Puerto Rico-based U.S. attorney's office prosecutor dedicated to the project, said Lt. Mario Teixeira, an officer with the Coast Guard's research and development center in Groton, Conn., who spoke at the Biometric Consortium conference here.

Prior to the program, such interdictions resulted in about two convictions per year, he said. Would-be migrants repatriated to the Dominican Republic got on a "revolving door" and simply tried to cross again, he said.

"Without delivered consequences, there was no deterrent for the migrant flow," he said. Since the service couldn't verify and collect identities, there was no way to stop wanted felons or repeat offenders, he said.

Migrants caught at sea have their boat scuttled and are then taken aboard a Coast Guard cutter for processing. A portable collection system takes fingerprints...