Homeland officials expect to meet immigration deadlines

Immigration officials expect to meet their Dec. 31 deadline for implementing an automated system for documenting all foreigners who enter and exit U.S. airports and seaports, the Homeland Security Department's undersecretary for border and transportation security told a Senate panel on Wednesday.

"There has been a substantial amount of work that has gone into that," Asa Hutchinson said during a joint hearing before two Senate Judiciary subcommittees. "We believe the first deadline of [collecting] entry-exit information at our airports and seaports can be met this year."

But meeting later deadlines for extending that system to the nation's land borders will be more difficult, according to Hutchinson.

Current law requires immigration officials to implement a fully automated system for collecting data on foreign visitors at the 50 largest land ports-of-entry by the end of 2004 and all land ports by the end of 2005. Hutchinson said meeting those deadlines will be a daunting challenge "because that takes new systems [and] new infrastructure ... that are not even in existence today."

Hutchinson said his directorate plans to "closely evaluate" its progress on meeting the deadlines and keep Congress informed. "We believe there's an urgency there and we're going to work very hard, but there are many challenges there," he said.

Meanwhile, immigration officials are building on an existing system in order to meet the 2003 deadline for documenting foreigners who enter and exit the United States through airports and seaports, according to Robert Mocny, director of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's entry-exit program.

"We're currently collecting arrival and departure data for all visa-waiver passengers arriving in and leaving from the United States," Mocny said, referring to a program that allows citizens of 27 participating countries to visit the United States for 90 days or less without first obtaining visas. "We will build upon that to meet the 2003 [deadline]."

But Mocny said tracking visa-waiver passengers who fail to leave the United States within 90 days still poses a challenge for immigration officials. The automated tracking system produces an "exception report" for people who overstay their welcome, he said, but "at this point, we're not in a position to be able to go and find that person immediately. That's what we're going to work on ... but we are collecting arrival and departure data."

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein said the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) and other tracking measures implemented by immigration officials over the past 18 months might have prevented some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers from entering the country.

But Feinstein said border security officials need more tools to keep terrorists and potential terrorist weapons outside the United States. "I realize that technology is not the sole answer to meeting the challenges of securing our country from the entry of those who wish to do us harm," Feinstein said. "But it is an essential element."