Transcript of the above video: 

The thrust of the story, what we're going to use it for for our purposes on this channel, the thrust of it is about Biometrics and the fact that Biometrics has wildly changed the Immigration System from what it started as in the 20 years that I've been practicing law and since I've been practicing both US Immigration and came to be familiar with the Thai Immigration System, Biometrics has changed things fundamentally. The way that law enforcement deals with immigration matters is different. It's very much no longer viewed as an administrative function immigration because things that once took a lot of manpower to administer i.e. the records of who is in the country, now can be collated, cross-reference digitally and utilizing AI and with Biometrics attached can be done with the degree of certainty that could never be done in the past quickly, which has really pivoted Immigration Officers from being sort of almost record keepers to becoming true law enforcement agents, actively arresting people and things.  

I did a video recently of a person who was arrested because their likeness was seen on a camera that was connected to the police, that was connected to an AI system, that cross-referenced them with their Immigration file, found out they were on overstay. They went outside and picked the guy up, arrested him, detained him, deported him and he is probably now blacklisted for at least five years. So again this is changing everything, but we're seeing it even in kind of mundane ways in a law enforcement sense. 

Quoting directly from a recent article from the print edition of the Bangkok Post, under the article: Swedish 'gang leader' collared on resort isle. Quoting directly: "The suspected leader of a Nordic crime syndicate" - first of all, just as an aside, like in my mind of a Nordic crime syndicate would be like Odin and his Ravens and a Valkyrie like running the numbers game or something, I don't know. But just when I heard that, a lot of juxtaposition occurred in my mind, in my mental imagery - quoting directly again: "The suspected leader of a Nordic crime syndicate wanted under an Interpol Red Notice has been arrested at a luxury condominium in Phuket. Investigators from the Immigration Bureau's Division 6 and local police apprehended a high-profile Swedish fugitive identified as Mr. Boran in a condominium room on the resort island on Thursday, the arresting team said yesterday." And I urge those who are watching this video, go online, you can check out bangkokpost.com and you can probably type in the title and find this. 

Quoting further though: "Biometric records showed the suspect into Thailand on January 4 via the Khuan Don checkpoint in Satun province on a Tourist Visa valid until March 4. He later obtained an extension in Phuket until April 3, which has since expired. He has been charged with overstaying his Visa by 6 days. After legal proceedings in Thailand are completed, he will be deported to Sweden in accordance with Immigration procedures." So in a sense, immigration has a real quick way of deporting this person and likely blacklisting them because they are apprehended in Thailand already on overstay. So this person was already in violation of Thai Immigration Law, and therefore subject to deportation from that moment.

Also for those who are unaware, if you are deported in that capacity where you've been found in Thailand, even if it's a one-day overstay, you can get a 5-year blacklisting for that kind of overstay. So that's something to keep in mind. 

But I feel like the important thing to understand is it was biometrics that at the end of the day probably ended up tracking this guy down. Because once they knew - and this person came in through Satun; that's an old school land border down there that at one time was, let's just say it wasn't that it was laxly guarded or anything, but it was just, when things weren't digitized and these records were not immediately being cross-referenced in real time by AI technology, which was not that long ago, only five years ago. I mean going back 10 years ago, there would be people who could honestly do all kinds of things at certain of the land borders because there just wasn't the connectivity that was bringing together these different systems. They were sort of semi-autonomous; they were unconnected from an information and communication standpoint with regard to the people that were passing through the checkpoints. So to my mind, the route of how this guy was sort of found was through the Biometrics and coming through the immigration checkpoint. Then they could cross-reference - well he did do an extension - I'm wondering if he listed his address in the extension form and that was the way that they found him. I don't know. As discussed in other videos, they're now using CCTV cameras that are cross referencing the Immigration database so he might have been out walking his dog or something and a camera caught him and that's how they found him. Again, it could have been just good police work. Maybe, okay we knew he was at this immigration spot, went and talked to the people that would have processed him that day, found out some information and managed to track it back to where he was living. I don't know. 

But at the end of the day, something that needs to be really understood here is that Biometrics is having a fundamental impact on not only Immigration protocols, but these days policy and enforcement as well.