these computers are smart but they dont work 100% of the time. for more info check out an article several years old in the new yorker magazine Original Article Print system nabs migrant criminals Richard Marosi Los Angeles Times Feb. 20, 2005 12:00 AM SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Border Patrol has arrested tens of thousands of people with criminal records, including suspected murderers, rapists and child molesters, since the agency last year installed a fingerprinting system that identifies criminals among the 1 million undocumented migrants apprehended annually. The high-tech system is part of a broader effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create a "virtual border" to stop terrorists and those with criminal pasts from entering the United States . The fingerprints of all detained undocumented immigrants are now matched against the FBI's national criminal database through scanners installed at all 137 Border Patrol stations along the Mexican and Canadian borders. To process a person, all 10 fingerprints are rolled across a scanner, and the digitized images are compared against the database's 47 million records. The results usually come back within minutes. advertisement About 30,000 of the 680,000 undocumented migrants who were arrested from May through December were identified as having criminal records, compared with about 2,600 during the same period in 2002, more than an elevenfold increase. Criminal undocumented immigrants are those with past arrests or convictions for crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder. Since its start as a pilot program in 2003, the system has identified about 24 people suspected of homicide, 55 of rape and 225 of assault, according to Border Patrol statistics. The system, installed over a six-month period ending in September, has made it difficult for suspects to flee the country and then return. That was common in the past when undocumented border-crossers who had criminal records or outstanding warrants often were simply deported because agents lacked tools to quickly investigate criminal histories. The surge in arrests probably will strain the ability of federal agencies to house and prosecute criminal undocumented immigrants, law enforcement experts say. How the Border Patrol handles the people it identifies depends on their records. People who have active warrants against them are handed over to the agencies that issued the warrants. Those with violent criminal records can be prosecuted for illegally re-entering the country and face potential 20-year prison terms. People stopped at the border who have prior convictions for non-violent crimes, the majority of cases, are usually expelled from the country, Border Patrol officials say. Among those apprehended: Leonardo Villareal Roman, a 28-year-old Mexican citizen, who was wanted by police in Santa Maria, accused of hacking a co-worker to death with a meat cleaver in 1999. When apprehended near Douglas in July 2003, Roman reportedly resisted and tried to take a gun from a Border Patrol agent. Juan Chavez-Diaz, 32, a registered sex offender, wanted by police in Petaluma, Calif., for a probation violation and captured in Arizona after crawling under the border fence near Naco. He was convicted in October 2003 of sexually abusing a young relative. The value of the new technology has been most dramatically demonstrated in Arizona, the main crossing point for undocumented immigrants, where agents last October apprehended an average of 40 criminal undocumented immigrants per day, according to Border Patrol statistics.