Senate Appropriators are directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) not spend $13 million in executive management funds in FY ’16 until the department provides Congress with its plans to implement a biometric exit system for foreign nationals departing from the U.S. and a report on non-immigrant aliens that have overstayed their visas.
Efforts to modernize the current DHS biometric database, called IDENT, to add new modalities beyond fingerprints as well efforts to create a biometric exit system are lagging, the appropriators say in their report accompanying their version of the FY ’16 spending bill for DHS. House appropriators have yet to mark up their version of the Homeland Security budget.
The report points out that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working with the DHS Science and Technology branch on improving current biometric entry capabilities and testing technologies and operating concepts for biometric exit but says commercial technology already exists to apply to the entry and exit processes.
“At the same time, off-the-shelf, but highly customizable biometric entry-exit capture solutions are available now and have proven their value in feasibility, security, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use at numerous airports outside of the United States,” the report says. “Further, the Department is undertaking the modernization of its automated biometric identification system, IDENT, to enable new capabilities such as multi-modal biometric matching that could facilitate biometric exit. These efforts are not moving fast enough to satisfy many members of Congress who wish to see biometric exit implemented.”
The project that S&T and CBP are working on together is called the Air Entry/Exit Re-Engineering (AEER) effort. S&T plans to pilot test biometric capabilities at an airport next year.
The Senate report says that the current biographic-based process for confirming that foreign nationals have departed the U.S. has improved to the point that “97 percent of departing aliens can be matched to their arrivals.” The purpose of the biometric exit-based solution is to strengthen the confidence that foreign travelers have left the country.
In addition to the AEER Project, CBP is conducting separate tests of biometric capabilities for entry and exit applications in the air and land environments. The agency in May wrapped up a test of a facial recognition solution provided by Unisys [UIS] at Dulles International Airport that matched captured images of travelers against electronic photos embedded in their U.S. ePassports.
CBP is also pilot testing a biometric exist solution at the Otay Mesa, Calif., pedestrian crossing and will do a field test of handheld devices to check the biometrics of foreign travelers as they are departing the U.S. from Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.
The Senate appropriators are directing CBP to do a simulation of a vehicular exit solution at land ports of entry. They want this study done before the agency commits to doing a vehicle-oriented land pilot that requires “significant infrastructure design and implementation.”
A report from DHS on the status of the AEER project and CBP’s various biometric pilots is due within 90 days of the FY ’16 DHS Appropriations Act becoming law, the Senate appropriators say.
IDENT, the DHS biometric repository is operated and maintained by the Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) within the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate. OBIM in FY ’16 plans to start upgrades for a Replacement Biometric System to replace IDENT, beginning with new software and middleware (HSR, Feb. 10).
OBIM is seeking nearly $66 million to begin the upgrade and Senate appropriators agree that at least $65.8 million should be allocated for Increment1 to the IDENT successor system. According to the Senate report, the three follow-on increments will cost $52.8 million, $40 million, and $46.7 million respectively.
“Today, the system houses over 180 million 10-print records,” the Senate Appropriations report says. “The Committee expects the modernized system to upgrade and enhance the IDENT system to include among other features, additional biometric matching modalities.”