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Brazil Starts Fingerprinting U.S. Travelers
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian police on Thursday began fingerprinting and photographing U.S. visitors on orders of a judge who compared planned U.S. security controls on travelers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi horrors.
Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva, furious at U.S. plans to fingerprint and photograph millions of visitors on entering the United States, ordered Brazil's authorities do the same to U.S. citizens starting on Thursday.
"We've begun doing this," said a Federal Police spokeswoman at Brazil's Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo.
The judge's order came after Brazil's Federal Public Ministry filed a complaint in court over the U.S. measure.
The US-VISIT system is meant to identify people who have violated immigration controls, have criminal records or belong to groups listed as terrorist organizations by the United States.
Starting on Monday, people who need visas to enter the United States will be digitally fingerprinted and photographed when they pass through immigration at major U.S. airports and seaports.
The measure does not apply to citizens of 27, mainly European, nations who do not need a visa to enter the United States.
"I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," said Sebastiao da Silva in the court order released on Tuesday.
Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil were not immediately available to comment.
Federal Police in Sao Paulo were not able to confirm how many ports of entry had begun the controls and how many U.S. citizens had been fingerprinted and photographed so far.
The order by Sebastiao da Silva, a regional federal judge in the state of Mato Grosso, can be overturned by Brazil's justice system if he is considered to be acting outside of his powers, a Federal Police spokesman said.
Brazilian Foreign Ministry officials were not available to comment on the ruling, which urges the government to pressure the United States to exempt Brazilians from the US-VISIT system.