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Toward A 10-Finger Security Check
by Chris Strohm
More than a year since Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff declared that the nation's biometric immigrant tracking system will require 10 fingerprints, government and industry officials only now are reaching the point of testing technology and drafting an acquisition plan.
Foreigners currently must give only two fingerprints and a facial photograph to US-VISIT, which checks their biometric information against government watch lists of known or suspected terrorists. The system, however, is not fully compatible with an FBI fingerprint database that uses 10 fingerprints and a photograph to track criminals.
In July 2005, Chertoff stressed the need for capturing 10 fingerprints through the US-VISIT system. He said the step "will dramatically improve our ability to detect and thwart terrorists trying to enter the United States, with no significant increase in inconvenience." His decree set in motion a series of events that are beginning to bear fruit.
Last September, a joint user group with representatives from Homeland Security, the FBI, the Defense and State departments, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology asked industry for a compact device that can capture 10 fingerprints within 15 seconds, connect to a computer without needing an additional power source, and generate an image and data format that meets or exceeds FBI requirements.
Robert Mocny, US-VISIT's acting director, said in a recent interview that his shop has started internal tests on two devices and expects to begin testing a third soon. The program will test the devices at select ports in fiscal 2007 and begin wide-scale deployments in fiscal 2008.
Meeting The Challenge
Technology to scan and capture 10 prints may be the easiest part of overhauling US-VISIT, said James Ziglar, who headed the former Immigration and Naturalization Service from 2001 to 2002.
Ziglar is now president and CEO of CrossMatch Technologies, which makes and sells biometric identity products. His company marshaled its resources in response to the joint user group's challenge and, within five months, built a system that meets the requirements, he said.
The Guardian system is one of the two under review by the program office. Ziglar said the FBI in March certified that the product meets the bureau's requirements for image quality and format. Ziglar said the Defense Department already is buying "in excess of 100" Guardian units, and the company is ready to sell the device to US-VISIT.
"The technology is there on the front end to go ahead and do it now if you wanted to," he said. "But that's really a policy decision. The policy issues and the timing issues are pretty immense, and the dollars are so huge in deploying an effective entry and exit system, that you've got to move carefully."
Perhaps much more challenging for overhauling US-VISIT is how to handle the 10 prints once they are captured. The program will have to simultaneously compare the 10 prints to the FBI database while providing two prints for an automated biometric identification system known as IDENT. State and local law enforcers use it to check the backgrounds of people, Ziglar said.
"We showed them that the technology exists," added Thomas Buss, CrossMatch's senior vice president for product development. "The challenge now is how do you apply this technology more quickly? Is the will there? [Are] the program budgeting and the appropriations dollars available, and is there an appropriate program to deploy this?"
Budgets And Blueprints
Mocny acknowledged he is grappling with those challenges. But the program office has yet to publicly reveal a detailed strategy for buying devices.
"We have not come up with an acquisition strategy yet," Mocny said. "Depending on how the tests go, that will inform how we move forward."
A US-VISIT spokeswoman said the program office has not yet formally initiated a competition, adding that the testing now being done "does not constitute a government effort to acquire devices for the government."
"The results of this research will help inform a future competitive government procurement to acquire biometric capture devices," the spokeswoman said. "So we will test the devices of any company that approaches us and meets the specification in our recent [request for information]."
Mocny said any buying and deployment schedule also depends on funding. "It's not cheap," he said. "It's not a $10 million event; it's up there in the larger numbers."
The Senate's version of the fiscal 2007 Homeland Security appropriations bill would give US-VISIT about $400 million, of which $60 million would be reserved for migrating the system to capture 10 fingerprints. The House version would give US-VISIT $362 million but not set aside funding specifically for converting the system.
Mocny said the $60 million is needed to begin converting the system, adding that he hopes the issue will be resolved in conference between the two chambers.
A Fishy Explanation About Strategy
The program office also has not yet submitted a strategic plan for US-VISIT to Congress, prompting frustration from some lawmakers. Chertoff and House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., had a candid exchange over the matter during a July 27 hearing.
"We are still waiting to hear the comprehensive plan about US-VISIT," Rogers said. "We asked for it I think last year. We haven't gotten it."
Chertoff replied: "I'm told it is in the final stages of being finished up, and should be to you very shortly."
"I hear that every other day," Rogers countered.
"I'm afraid I do all too often as well, Mr. chairman," Chertoff said.
"Well, like visitors and fish, things get stale after a certain period of time," Rogers concluded. "And we're beginning to smell an odor up here, Mr. secretary."
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