More fingers required to enter U.S.

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Scott Jagow: Foreign visitors who land at Dulles airport today will have to give 10. As in 10 fingers. Homeland Security is rolling out a new security system that requires all 10 fingerprints instead of just two. Many more airports will be doing this for foreign visitors starting next year. Here’s Jeremy Hobson.

Jeremy Hobson: The fingerprints will be compared with growing government watchlists — to catch, as Anna Hinken of U.S.-VISIT puts it:

Anna Hinken: Dangerous people that we don’t want in the United States.

Hinken says having 10 fingerprints will give the government a big advantage. She says the system will cost upwards of $200 million. But some say the price may be much higher.

Geoff Freeman: When you don’t ask people for their business and you only put up barriers, the end result is very predictable.

Geoff Freeman is with Discover America, a group of business leaders trying to boost the number of tourists here in the U.S. Freeman says government figures show a 17 percent drop in foreign visitors since 9/11 has cost the nation $100 billion and 200,000 jobs.

Freeman: And much of that decline is due to a negative perception of the entry experience.

Freeman says if 10 fingerprints are needed, the U.S. needs to do a better job telling foreign visitors why.

In Washington, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.