New US entry rule: DHS mandates non-citizens, Green Card holders be photographed at all borders

Starting December 26, 2025, the US will make biometric checks mandatory for almost all foreign travellers at every port of entry. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has finalised a rule requiring photographs of all non-US citizens, including green card holders, on both entry and exit, extending the practice beyond major airports to land and sea crossings.

Under the new system, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers will collect photos and other biometrics from nearly all non-citizens on arrival and departure. The rule removes earlier exemptions for travellers under 14 and over 79, bringing those age groups into biometric capture as well. DHS says the expansion will help detect identity fraud, track visa overstays, and strengthen border security.

CBP already uses facial recognition to verify most international air arrivals; the regulation makes the process mandatory across all ports. Officials cite overstay enforcement as a key driver: a 2023 Congressional Research Service estimate attributed about 42% of the roughly 11 million unauthorised immigrants to visa overstays. Congress first mandated an automated entry-exit system in 1996, but implementation has remained partial. CBP now projects full entry-exit coverage at commercial airports and seaports within three to five years.

The build-out will include image databases linked to each traveller, combining passport and travel document photos with those captured at the border, and then matching them against real-time images taken at kiosks or by officers. The move aligns with ongoing immigration enforcement priorities under the Trump administration, including the allocation of additional resources at the US-Mexico border.

Accuracy and civil-rights concerns

Civil-liberties groups and oversight bodies have questioned the plan’s fairness and precision. A 2024 US Commission on Civil Rights report flagged higher error rates for Black travellers and other minorities in facial recognition systems. As Bloomberg quoted Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said, “CBP points to laws passed more than two decades ago to justify the data collection, but Congress couldn't have intended for the use of facial recognition technology then in its infancy.”

Venzke added, “This technology is unreliable, disproportionately harms people of colour, and serves as the foundation for a perpetual surveillance state,” Venzke said.

CBP maintains that stricter biometrics will reduce document fraud and close exit gaps at land and sea crossings where coverage has lagged, while asserting that images are handled under existing privacy and data-retention rules.