Hundreds of people trying to get into the United States on false passports have been intercepted since the introduction of new immigration controls including digital fingerprinting, a US official said Tuesday.
"Since the beginning of the year, this procedure has allowed us to stop 280 people before they entered US territory," Robert Mocny, a deputy director at the US Homeland Security Department told AFP.
They included people wanted for murder or on drugs trafficking charges, he said.
Some of those stopped were extradited while others were detained for prosecution in the United States.
The measures were first introduced on January 1 and were extended on September 30 to travellers from 27 western countries, which benefit from a visa waiver programme for short stays in the United States.
Mocny said "a couple of people" had already been identified since the measures were extended to citizens of mainly European countries last week.
Under the boosted security implemented at US frontiers, digitised fingerprints taken upon entry are compared with a data base of prints of more than one million people wanted in the US or barred from the country.
Mocny said the procedure, which lasts 15 seconds, allows authorities to pick up false passports or visas that remained undetected under the old system, which relied on inputs from customs and immigration officials.