U.S. air carriers have angrily rejected Homeland Security Department plans to make their staff collect fingerprints from foreign visitors leaving the United States, writing to the White House in what executives say is an effort to squash the proposal.

The fingerprint plan is the first step in implementing the so-called exit portion of U.S.-VISIT, a Homeland Security system that biometrically verifies the identity of most foreign visitors arriving in the United States through an inkless scan of two fingerprints and a digital photograph.

But the department has wrestled for more than two years with the practicalities and last week announced it was abandoning a series of pilot projects designed to test a stand-alone process for taking the finger scans at small, ATM-like kiosks in airport departure lounges.

Instead, it said, it would integrate biometric checks into the existing check-in process.

Except the airline industry grows more successful every month at virtualizing the check-in process – moving it online instead of stacking people up at a check-in desk.

There are…concerns from the airlines and on Capitol Hill that Homeland Security is seeking to delegate a core government function — effective immigration checks on departing visitors — to the industry.

A spending plan for U.S.-VISIT submitted to Congress earlier this year links implementation to a radical effort to integrate Homeland Security screening programs that airlines take part in — like the so-called no-fly watch list and the Advance Passenger Information System.

Another couple of bureaucratic fiascos.

The Air Transport Association sent their letter of complaint directly to the White House rather than to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. They hoped to get results by going straight to the Commander Guy.