U.S. VISIT Program Could Have Major Downstream Implications

By JAMES D. HESSMAN
Senior Writer & Editor Emeritus

The announced principal purposes of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) U.S. VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) program are to "enhance the traffic flow" of travelers entering or exiting the United States on legitimate business and to prevent others, who do not meet the legitimate-business criteria, from coming into or going out of the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said that the system--which he described as "a critical new border-security and enforcement tool"--will be in "its first phase of operation" at international air and sea ports of entry into the United States "by the end of 2003." In a National Press Club speech marking the Department's first 100 days of operation, Ridge said that the U.S. VISIT program is one of DHS's "top priorities." He said that the system "will be capable of using information, coupled with biometric identifiers--such as photographs, fingerprints, or iris scans--to create an electronic check-in/check-out system for people who come to the United States to work or to study and visit."

Ridge stressed that the new system will be helpful to legal arrivals and "will expedite the process for those who are entering the country [legally]. ... America remains, and must always remain, a welcoming nation. ... We want to keep terrorists out without compromising the welcoming mat. Since the founding of our country ... [the United States] has long invited good people around the world to our shores to study and to work and to live out their dreams."

Although he mentioned terrorists, Ridge did not focus on the several ways in which the new program could be used not only in the apprehension, identification, and incarceration (or deportation, as appropriate) of terrorists already resident in the United States, but also, in cooperation with U.S. allies overseas, to seek out and bring to justice terrorists now living, legally or otherwise, in other nations.

The identification systems created and used to implement the U.S. VISIT system also would have numerous law-enforcement applications and could be used by U.S. immigration officials to identify other migrants who, although not terrorists, may have entered the United States illegally at one time or another in the past and are still living here.

The U.S. VISIT system will be put into operation "incrementally," DHS spokeswoman Kimberly Weissman told Sea Power, but when fully implemented will include such information as the complete name, gender, date of birth, country of residence, and nationality of a visitor to the United States; his or her dates of arrival and departure; passport number and country of issuance; the individual's U.S. visa number, date and place of visa issuance; classification as an immigrant or non-immigrant; and address while in the United States.

The privacy rights of visitors will be protected, Weissman said. The information required under the U.S. VISIT criteria will be stored in databases maintained by DHS and the Department of State as part of the individual's travel record and will be available only to authorized officials responsible for: (a) identifying non-immigrants "who may have overstayed their visas or otherwise violated the terms of their admission into the United States"; (b) assisting in the adjudication of immigration benefits; and/or (c) assisting other federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies "as necessary."

DHS anticipates, Weissman said, that the U.S. VISIT system "will be capable of scanning travel documents and taking fingerprints and pictures of foreign nationals." The fingerprints and photos then "could be checked against databases" to determine whether the individual "should be detained or questioned" about his or her "terrorist or criminal involvement."

A government official in the security field (name withheld on request) told Sea Power that even tighter security could be achieved through the use of other biometric data--hand geometry, for example, which he said is required at the Tel Aviv airport for entry into Israel. The use of DNA samples, though--which could be embedded into an ID card for "absolutely positive 100-percent identification"--would be "very expensive, invasive, and extremely difficult to process in a timely manner." Even higher security--which might be mandatory for access to classified spaces--is possible through encryption and/or the inclusion of code words or numbers known only to the user (and to the ID processing system used at the point of entry).

The cost of biometric ID cards probably could be reduced "considerably" in the foreseeable future, the same official said, because of the very large number of U.S. VISIT and other biometric cards likely to be produced to meet U.S. and private-sector security needs--more than 35 million visitors now enter and exit the United States annually, Ridge said in his National Press Club speech. The forgery of U.S. VISIT and other high-tech cards would be "extremely difficult, but not impossible," the official said. "It depends on the degree of sophistication of the individual card used."

Much of the hardware and software used in the U.S. VISIT and other identification programs is expected to be provided by private-sector companies that are already active in the security field. The Identix company of Minnetonka, Minn., for example, created and is offering--to government as well as commercial customers--a hand-held Integrated Biometric Identification System (IBIS) that, according to a company fact sheet distributed at the 9-12 June 2003 E-Gov Conference in Washington, D.C., has the ability to capture and transmit "forensic-quality fingerprint images and photographs to a central databank ... for on-the-spot identification."

IBIS, which was specifically designed "with officer safety and convenience in mind," according to the fact sheet, not only provides "a real-time [photo] display" of an apprehended subject "without impeding the officer's view," but also saves fingerprints and photo images in an easily retrievable format "so the information can later be accessed for reports and investigations."

Also likely in the not-too-distant future is the introduction of even more sophisticated identity systems that could be used by coalitions of nations for commercial, defense, and/or law-enforcement purposes. Here, the creation of an easily accessible but carefully controlled database that would permit the quick identification of both known and unknown international terrorists is the most obvious example.

The collection and management of such a database, though, would require special expertise, the cooperation of numerous defense and law-enforcement agencies, and multinational agreements on the sharing of identification data. MaXware, a Norwegian-based company that specializes in identity management, has developed a number of systems in this field designed, according to company spokesman Elliott Friedman, to provide "real-time, secure, and controlled access to a large number of different directories, databases, and other data sources."

Among the company's current government and private-sector customers, Friedman said in an interview at E-Gov 2003, are the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, British Telecom, Pharmacia, Alcan, and key agencies of the governments of Norway, Australia, and the United Kingdom.