By Marina Malenic
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tests are an inadequate exit system to record when alien visitors depart the United States, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found.
The department’s current tests do not fulfill the requirements of Congress contained in the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009 (Public Law 110-329), GAO said in a report released this week.
Congressional investigators said the department should identify ways to augment the exit system for the US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program. DHS concurred with that recommendation but did not specify what sources of information it might consider in the future.
US-VISIT has offered an entry system at U.S. airports since 2006. Under the effort, DHS collects biometric information from alien visitors as they enter the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration conducted the pilots and issued a report on those tests in October 2009. GAO concluded that the pilots were poorly run.
“Also, the report did not meet a legislative expectation for gathering information on the security of information collected from visitors subject to US-VISIT,” the GAO report states
The DHS evaluation report also failed to include specific metrics and costs, GAO said. Further, implementation of the pilots also cut corners, such as suspension of exit screening at some airport gates to avoid potential flight delays. And, finally, DHS did not test all requirements spelled out in the evaluation plan.
“The pilots were not conducted in accordance with the evaluation plan, in that they did not meet the plan’s stated purpose of operationally evaluating the air exit requirements,” the GAO report states. “More specifically, about 30 percent of the requirements were not operationally tested, either as part of the pilots or as part of another exit project.
“Rather, they were tested, for example, prior to commencement of pilot operations or as part of another exit project that has yet to complete operational testing,” report continues. “DHS officials considered such testing of requirements to be sufficient.”
GAO concluded that the pilot tests should not be used to make decisions on how to implement an exit system for US-VISIT. Instead, the department ought to find other sources of information for making decisions on the effectiveness of an exit system for US-VISIT.