Senate appropriators have approved and their House counterparts have rejected a proposed interagency transfer of the program office that manages a biometric matching system within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is used to automatically identify known and suspected terrorists (KSTs) attempting to enter the United States, typically by legal means through a port of entry.
DHS in its FY ’13 budget request is asking Congress to approve the transfer of most of US-VISIT from the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and a smaller slice of the program to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the proposal CBP would get the core US-VISIT operations and management for the biometric and biographic information storage, matching and watchlist services (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).
ICE would get responsibility for analysis of foreigners who have overstayed their visas, which is in line with the agency’s mission of immigration enforcement.
In its mark-up of the DHS appropriations bill, Senate appropriators recommend transferring all of the responsibility for US-VISIT to CBP, deferring the transfer of a portion of the office to ICE “until the proper level of funding is validated to support the visa overstay function.”
The House appropriators agree with the transfer of visa overstay analysis from US-VISIT to ICE but on the transfer of basic operations and management to CBP disagree with the proposal, noting that the program office supports multiple agencies across the federal government, as well as state, local and international governments.
“The responsibility for uniquely identifying individuals in screening processes with biometrics, maintaining those identities, continually enhancing this core capability for national security, the integrity of the immigration system, and public safety is well beyond CBP’s mission,” the House Appropriations Committee says in its report on the FY ’13 DHS budget request.
Despite its willingness to transfer US-VIST out of NPPD, the Senate appropriators say they are concerned “over the depth of the analysis” supporting the move of particular functions to different agencies and the amount of funding that should transfer with each function. With this in mind, the Senate report directs DHS to further review whether some US-VISIT functions might also reside in the department’s Office of International Affairs or the Screening Coordination Office.
The US-VISIT office manages the DHS Automated Biometric Identifications System [IDENT] which is used by a number of the department’s components, including CBP, ICE, the Coast Guard and others, to make sure that not only do KSTs be denied entry into the U.S. but that illegal aliens either attempting to enter the country or who are already in the U.S. and have previously been arrested stand a better chance of being caught. Information in IDENT is also shared with other agencies, including the Departments of Defense and Justice and the intelligence community.
DHS is seeking $279 million for US-VISIT in FY ’13. The Senate fully funds the request, providing all the funds to CBP, whereas the House adds $2.3 million to the requested transfer to ICE while leaving most of the rest with NPPD. However, the House would transfer $12.3 million of the US-VISIT funds to CBP’s Office of Field Operations, which has the responsibility for policy and operations related to processing foreign nationals entering and exiting the U.S.
Accenture [ACN] is the prime contractor for US-VISIT.