Officials unveil first phase of foreign visitor tracking system

Homeland Security Department officials Tuesday unveiled the first phase of a massive new immigration system to track the comings and goings of millions of annual visitors to the United States.

Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security undersecretary for border and transportation security, said at a press conference in Washington that the new system represents an "historic leap forward" in U.S. immigration enforcement and national security.

Beginning Jan. 5, the program, known as US VISIT, will begin operating at 115 U.S. airports and 14 seaports, Hutchinson said. Foreign visitors will be required to submit two electronic copies of their fingerprints as well as a digital photo of their face. This information will be collected by immigration inspectors during the routine interviews all visitors undergo when they arrive at U.S. ports of entry.

Homeland Security officials staged a mock demonstration of an interview to show how taking fingerprints and a photograph would add only seconds to the clearance process. The department will use collection systems that are in place now, and will hand over expansion of VISIT next year to a contractor. Hutchinson said requests for proposals would be issued in November.

While collecting fingerprints and photographs, known as biometrics, represents a significant step forward for immigration control, the version of VISIT officials demonstrated doesn't approximate what the full program will look like. The system still cannot search all terrorist suspect watch lists maintained by several intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Jim Williams, VISIT's program director, said that Homeland Security currently receives electronic "downloads" of watchlists from the FBI, but only occasionally.

Lawmakers and the General Accounting Office have criticized the department for not integrating terrorist watch lists into one repository. Homeland Security officials had said they would accomplish that task within the first 100 days of the department's official opening, which took place in January, but they haven't done so yet.

Williams downplayed Homeland Security's role in that effort. "Frankly, we're a customer of that" watch list data, he said, adding that the department needs to do a better job of getting watch lists from the FBI more frequently.

Hutchinson stressed a number of times that VISIT would be designed to "facilitate" the entry of people into the country. "The United States wants to continue to be a welcoming nation," he said.

A number of groups, particularly in the transportation and shipping industries, are concerned that the extra time it takes to process visitors could back up immigration lines for miles at the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. Hutchinson said the department is "committed . . . to not increasing the wait times dramatically." VISIT must be deployed at the 50 busiest land border crossings next year, and by 2005 it must be operating at every port of entry-air, sea and land.

Hutchinson said training of federal employees on how to use the first phase of VISIT will begin next month at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. He noted that although the law requires the program be in place by Dec. 31 of this year, it wouldn't start operating until Jan. 5. Hutchinson said airline industry groups complained that launching VISIT at the height of the holiday travel season would be overly burdensome.

Congress appropriated $330 million for the VISIT program for fiscal 2004, about $50 million less than for fiscal 2003. Hutchinson said he was "disappointed" that lawmakers didn't meet President Bush's full $400 million request.

Williams, the VISIT director, declined to specify how much the system could ultimately cost. He said that in addition to proposing how to build the system, companies that bid on the program would submit a "funding profile." Officials are turning to industry to design, build and manage VISIT because they are so saddled with the administrative tasks of forming the new department.

Exit processing, the other half of the VISIT coin, will be phased in beginning next year, Hutchinson said. Rather than submit to an exit interview, travelers will be able to check out of the country at an electronic kiosk. The exit confirmation will be added to the visitor's record, and will help Homeland Security officials keep track of people who have overstayed their visas, he said.

Exit procedures will be in place at as many as 10 major airports and at least one seaport by early 2004.

Also, by Oct. 26, 2004, countries that are permitted to waive visa requirements for their citizens must certify that they are able to issue machine-readable passports that incorporate biometrics. That requirement was instituted as part of the USA Patriot Act, signed into law after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.