The government contract for laser visas was worth $28.6 million from 2000 to 2006, and Homeland Security awarded a five-year renewal in March to General Dynamics Corp. worth $28.5 million, according to Homeland Security.

That price tag excludes the cost of opening new consulates to handle the rush of applicants. The State Department established consulates across the border from Laredo, Texas, and Nogales, Ariz. In Tijuana, Mexico, the consulate took over an old gymnasium across town.

The 1996 law said anyone presenting a border crossing card "is not permitted to cross over the border into the U.S. unless the biometric identifier contained on the card matches the appropriate biometric characteristics of the alien."

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But Sandra Raynes, consular officer at the U.S. consulate in Tijuana, said: "If they were to check everyone, you'd have lines all the way down to Cabo San Lucas," about 1,100 miles south of San Diego.

U.S. officials said biometrics are only part of its effort to stem illegal crossings. An inspector's wits and agency intelligence are also key, they said.

Biometrics "is one tool in our toolbox," said Kelly Klundt, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman.

Also, the laminated cards have reduced fraud because they are difficult to counterfeit, officials said. Older visas looked like crumpled library cards, some dating to the 1950s. Authorities said women in their 60s used cards with photographs of teenage girls because the cards had no expiration dates.

Former Rep. Jim Kolbe, a Republican who left Congress in January after 22 years representing a district on the Arizona border, said lawmakers expected checks on all cardholders, though there was no timetable.

"We definitely intended to go further with it than we have," he said. "Ten years later, it seems incredible that we've only gotten this far with it."

The 14 pedestrian booths at San Ysidro, the nation's busiest border crossing by far, are equipped with fingerprint glass but no cameras. But that glass is not used on the 30,000 people who walk though daily. There is neither type of equipment in the 24 vehicle lanes, which handle about 35,000 cars and 250 buses a day.

Applicants for the six-month permits are asked to pull aside into a small parking lot, get out and walk up to a booth, where they are fingerprinted and photographed for verification.

Initially, border crossings did not even have equipment to lift personal information off the cards, let alone the biometric data.

Jeffrey Davidow, U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1998 to 2001, recalls members of Congress visiting the border to see the machines, which were never used when the lawmakers were gone.

"I'd tell them that it was all show, that it doesn't work, that the card is not doing what it's supposed to do," Davidow said. He said his warnings elicited shrugs.

There were also technological setbacks. Equipment to verify photos and fingerprints often failed to read through sweat, scratches and other wallet "crud," according to an internal Homeland Security report.

A test at five Texas crossings in the spring of 2004 showed that 731 out of 1,740 cards, or 42 percent, were unreadable, according to the report, which was provided to The Associated Press by someone who insisted on anonymity because the government did not authorize its release.

Homeland Security officials did not have more recent figures on how many cards are correctly read. But they said technical problems have been resolved.

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