Fingerprints and photos are taken upon entering any local or state jail facility, but now, thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, foreigners visiting this country complete the process before they even commit a crime.

Last week, Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, announced a program that will force U.S. visitors to spend more time in American airports. The program, which requires fingerprints and photos of incoming and outgoing foreign travelers, has left many questioning - where will all the presumptions stop?

Operating under the guise of increasing national security, the US-VISIT program is just another way for the government to harass those who are different and have yet to do anything wrong.

The program requires border officials to look over foreigners' travel documents and ask questions about their stay in the United States.

Border officials become the new "Big Brothers" as they make decisions deciding whether or not to admit or deport a person.

Rather than making American air passengers feel more safe, the new procedure might create more fear. When American passengers pass by and see a line of people who look different than them getting fingerprinted like a common criminal, what are they going to think?

This program creates a new type of racial profiling and says to the common observer that, in order to be a terrorist, you also have to be a foreigner.

There is no doubt that the events of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks left many people in fear, searching for someone or something to blame for the attacks.

But after two years, programs like US-VISIT and the security alert system have caused people to look over their shoulders at the person who may have a different skin tone than them.

Instead of making the United States safer, they are promoting racism.