Ensuring Homeland Security While Facilitating Legitimate Travel

Ensuring homeland security while facilitating legitimate travel : the challenge at America's ports of entry : hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, January 3, 2008.

Ensuring homeland security while facilitating legitimate travel: the challenge at America's ports of entry: hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, January 3, 2008.

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program's goals are to enhance the security of U.S. citizens and visitors, facilitate legitimate travel and trade, ensure the integrity of the U.S. immigration system, and protect the privacy of visitors. It is to use biometric and biographic information to control and monitor the pre-entry, entry, status, and exit of foreign visitors. GAO was asked to determine (1) whether DHS has defined and economically justified a strategic solution for meeting US-VISIT goals; (2) the biometric technology options DHS has considered and the basis for the selected options; and (3) DHS's efforts to define, manage, and coordinate the relationships between US-VISIT and other immigration and border management programs. To accomplish this, GAO assessed key program documentation against relevant criteria and examined available biometric research. GAO is recommending that the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure that the strategic solution components are well-defined and economically justified before investing large sums of money and

The subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony regarding how the Department of Homeland Security addresses the mission of providing security, facilitating commerce, and protecting the privacy of passengers engaged in international travel. I look forward to hearing from today's witnesses on the value and efficacy of the Passenger Name Record program in our on-going mission to prevent terrorists and other dangerous criminals from entering the United States. Today's hearing is aimed at educating our Members, and I think many at-large, about the ways in which the Department of Homeland Security collects, protects, and uses personal information on travelers attempting to come into the United States. Given the transnational nature of terrorism, and a desire of terrorist operatives to enter the United States from abroad, it is crucial that we act in partnership with other nationals around the world.