US-VISIT bolsters border security

The United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, which was implemented by the Department of Homeland Security Jan. 5 to enhance the nation's border security, comes at a price.\nFor the financial year of 2003, Congress appropriated $380 million to cover the costs of the program. The funding mainly included the purchasing of new computers and other equipment at 115 airports and 14 seaports. For the financial year 2004, $330 million was granted. Considering the DHS budget for 2004, with $36.5 billion tax payer money, the cost of the program might look marginal. However, in comparison the state of Indiana appropriations for the whole Bloomington campus are roughly $208 million in 2003-2004. \n"It is very expensive. I doubt that it is going to make us safer enough to make it worth it. But I am not the only one to make the decision," said Lynn Schoch, senior associate director for the Office of International Services. "In this case, Washington is representative for how people feel in this concern, and I have to respect that. They have certainly more reason than before 9/11. How much bang do we get for the buck? I don't know if we are really getting that much security out of it." \nBefore the U.S.-VISIT Program was enforced, only biographic data, such as a visitor's name was compared against watch lists of suspected terrorists, criminals and other violators, according to the DHS. \nIn addition to this, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection will now use an inkless digital scanner to electronically capture two index fingerscans, as well as a digital photo of arriving visitors holding non-immigrant visas. \nThe DHS hopes the use of biometric identifiers in addition to biographic data will make it more difficult for suspects to hide their true identities in an attempt to enter the U.S. illegally. The biographic and fingerscan data will be used to verify the identity of the visitor and will be compared against watch lists with 101.5 million fingerprints of criminals, terrorists or deported aliens, said William Strassberger, an immigration spokesman from the DHS.\nStrassberger said the new program enables them to verify the person who is using the visa is the person for whom the visa was issued. Any fraud of photo substitution can be detected. If a terrorist were to steal a visa, change the photo and travel under a different name, the fingerprints would identify him as the person he actually is. \n"We also have a better integrity of the data, than to how it was before when the information was typed in manually," Strassberger said. \nSchoch thinks the consequence of taking the biometric data will be that individuals will be treated better because of the confidence that the documents are valid. \n"With this process, the border officer can be sure that you are who the document says you are. The new system moves us into a position that we will make less errors of identification," Schoch said.\nThe US-VISIT Program also includes the automated exit kiosks in order to record a visitor leaving the country. When leaving the country, visitors with visas will check out at an automated self-service kiosk, where visitors will scan their travel documents and repeat the digital fingerscanning process on the inkless scanner, according to the DHS. If a visitor overstays his or her allotted time, the US-VISIT will record their failure to depart. People who overstay their visit may be removed from the U.S. and barred from future entry or from receiving a new visa.\nIn fact, Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian who is believed to have piloted the first plane to hit the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001, reentered the U.S. Jan. 10, 2001, even though his visa had expired Dec. 2, 2000, and was not detected. \n"Taking somebody's fingerprints and picture is invasion of privacy, but it is based on something that nations agreed on for many centuries," Schoch said. "When you visit somebody's country you give them the right to know who and where you are. It has always been that way and biometrics stands in this tradition."\nIt is planned US-VISIT will substitute the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System which required special registration procedures from people from countries such as Iran, Bahrain or Afghanistan. \n"I see US-VISIT as something more helpful than NSEERS because it requires everyone to do it and not just whoever immigration officials determine," said Jennifer Bowen, assistant director for student services at IU.\nThe introduction of the new program consumes additional time at the air and seaports. The DHS launched a US-VISIT pilot test before Jan. 5 at the Atlanta airport with 20,000 passengers in order to find out the average processing time for each visitor. The study showed the US-VISIT procedure added an average of 15 seconds to the passenger processing time. Strassberger says during the first month of operation, statistics have shown, the average delay is even less at four seconds per passenger.\n"It took me not more than a few seconds," agrees Byoung Hyoun-Hwang, 23, a senior at IU. "The procedure was very fast. I was just wondering why they took only our fingerprints (visitors with non-immigrant visa) and not also those from tourists."\n-- Contact Thomas Bender at tbender@indiana.edu.