01/2011: Robert Mocny

JANUARY 2011

Robert Mocny
Director of US-VISIT,
US Department of Homeland Security,
Washington, D.C.

“Recent and unfolding developments on
biometrics-enabled border control policies”

Ü Eurasylum: The aim of the US-VISIT program is to advance the security of both the United States and worldwide travel, through the use and sharing of biometric information for identity management. The program involves, in particular, the collection and analysis of biometric data (digital fingerprints and photographs), which are checked against a database of suspected terrorists, criminals, and illegal immigrants. With some exceptions, US-VISIT collects biometric information from all non-U.S. citizens between the ages of 14 and 79, when they apply for visas or arrive at major U.S. ports of entry. Can you guide us through the key policy and technological aspects of US-VISIT and highlight the program’s key outcomes to date in terms of prevention/apprehension of illegal entrants? Also, can you comment on the extent to which US-VISIT has achieved value for money not only in terms of border security but also in delivering a balance between security and the facilitation of legitimate travel?

Ü Robert Mocny: The US-VISIT program was originally created as a critical component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) strategy to prevent those who present a threat to the United States from coming to our country and to facilitate the movement of legitimate travel and trade. The establishment of US-VISIT and the creation of an integrated immigration and border-screening system represent major achievements, not only in efforts to reform the Nation’s immigration and border management system, but also in efforts to improve national security.

Through the collection, storage, and matching of digital fingerscans and photographs, the US-VISIT program provides DHS and its stakeholders and customers effective and efficient identity-screening services. Biometric information, paired with biographic information pertaining to that individual, is used to establish and verify an individual’s identity. US-VISIT currently maintains biometric records on over 120 million individuals, the vast majority of whom are foreign nationals.

The program began on January 5, 2004. In addition to operating at the ports of entry (U.S. Customs and Border Protection), US-VISIT also supports biometric enrollment and the screening of other homeland security agencies and missions, including interior immigration enforcement (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), enforcement between the ports of entry (Border Patrol), and maritime immigration enforcement (U.S. Coast Guard). IDENT processes more than 175,000 transactions a day for DHS, the Department of State, and other customers. IDENT contains a biometric watchlist with enrolled fingerprints that are compared to identify persons who should be more closely scrutinized prior to entering the United States or prior to being granted visas and immigration benefits, and to identify those who may warrant law enforcement action. The biometric watchlist contains information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs), criminals, sex offenders, domestic and international fugitives, threats to officer safety, military detainees, persons of interest, and immigration violators.

With respect to the question of “value for money”, it can be difficult to quantify the value of the security added. However, I can say that in addition to adding value to the border security dimension of immigration control, US-VISIT has been able to facilitate legitimate travel. The speed and confidence with which US-VISIT confirms identities and checks watchlists gives U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the port of entry greater confidence that they will make the correct decision whether to admit an individual into the United States. The U.S. travel and tourism industry has been very supportive of US VISIT because of the program’s aggressive, pro-active outreach and education to the international travelling public. In fact, the Discover Partnership of America, an effort led by some of America’s foremost business leaders to strengthen America’s image around the globe, said in a 2007 report that US-VISIT is a “successful program” and recommended taking US-VISIT to the next level with exit capabilities, 10-fingerprint collection and better information sharing between governments. Such endorsements are a good indication that US-VISIT is not negatively impacting tourism to the United States.

Ü Eurasylum: A number of EU member states, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom, have established similar biometrics-enabled border control systems. In addition, over the last ten years, there have been regular EU-US consultations at Ministerial and technical levels on biometrics in passports, visa issues, the sharing of information and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Can you comment on the ways in which such EU-US consultations and cooperation may have improved early warning, up-front consultation and the prevention of potential conflicts, and give us your views on how you see such cooperation moving forward in the coming years?

Ü Robert Mocny: In 2010 we continued collaborating with foreign governments seeking to incorporate biometrics into their immigration and border management systems. US-VISIT offers a range of technical assistance to our foreign partners as they develop and deploy biometrics in their immigration and control systems. Specifically, US-VISIT technical experts temporarily assigned to Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom are helping those countries develop their own biometric capabilities.

At least 10 foreign governments plan to implement, or have already implemented, biometric systems to prevent fraud and improve immigration and border management. For example, the United Kingdom now collects 10 fingerprints from visa applicants and has completed the first phase of its rollout of biometric capture and verification at ports of entry. Canada is deploying a new biometric identification system as part of its visa issuance process by 2013, and Australia has been a pioneer in facial recognition, and is now augmenting its system to capture 10 fingerscans as part of its visa process.

The United Arab Emirates has been using iris scans as part of its national immigration and border control processes since 2003. And the European Union is building a 10 fingerprint visa-issuance program based on the Eurodac system that uses fingerprints to enable European countries to determine if an asylum applicant in one country has violated immigration laws in another.

Over 80 countries now issue electronic passports – e-passports – with biometrics that provide additional travel document security to facilitate trusted traveler programs. US-VISIT has been involved in many of these efforts. As US VISIT engages these countries, we also promote the adoption of compatible biometric standards relating to collection, storage, transmission, and matching, which will ultimately result in improved security and facilitated travel worldwide.

In 2010 we continued to work closely with the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada to test limited biometric information sharing in order to expand to more systematic methods for identifying known or suspected criminals and immigration violators.

Ü Eurasylum: In addition to the US and the EU, a number of other countries, including Australia, Canada, Dubai, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, have established relatively sophisticated biometric-assisted border control systems. This is in addition to the fact that over 80 countries are now issuing e-passports and that some 25% of airports worldwide use biometric identification at border controls. Despite such developments, however, there is still a lack of global standardization in this area, which puts greater responsibility on the industry stakeholders to work together to ensure some commonality in their systems. According to SITA, standardized processes, systems and infrastructure are crucial not only to keep costs down by avoiding the need to handle multiple variants, but also to deliver greater efficiency and convenience to passengers, airport workers and border management staff through better familiarity with the requirements. Can you describe, briefly, your vision of the future of biometrics-enabled border management processes at a global level, particularly as regards the interoperability of systems and issues of governance? Also, to what extent do you consider that a program such as ESTA, which is currently only used for visa waiver nationals, could be developed into a form of evisa, which would allow to pre-screen and give clearance to everyone travelling to the US (while profiling out of immediate clearance those you would either want to interview or enrol for biometrics), thus improving the process and reducing costs?

Ü Robert Mocny: Each country’s physical and historical context is different, requiring varying approaches to immigration and border security. Nevertheless, there are still many opportunities for international collaboration on travel security and migration.

Important areas where the United States and foreign partners should start or continue to work together include:

– Sharing best practices and harmonizing biometric technical standards

– Sharing best practices and harmonizing biometric business processes

– Developing a common set of definitions and thresholds to facilitate the understanding of each other’s criminal watchlists, ensuring consistency in screening and immigration benefit adjudication from one country to another

– Exchanging biometric information on transnational criminals and terrorists

– Developing a multilateral capability to identify individuals who “benefit shop” for immigration or asylum benefits among multiple countries.

Additionally, as more and more countries implement biometric programs, it is important to realize that we all face a common challenge, the need to identify known and unknown individuals as quickly and accurately as possible. US-VISIT works with many of these countries to support identity screening services internationally. To continue this collaboration in the future, US-VISIT will develop back-end flexibility that will support multiple communication means, modalities and data formats from a diverse and ever expanding international stakeholder base. At the same time, for our international partnerships to thrive, we must employ interoperable standards and interfaces.

With the emergence and increasing adoption of new biometrics standards and technologies, US-VISIT and many of our international partners will face a critical challenge. How do we accommodate a dynamic customer base, utilizing multiple communication means, modalities and data formats, while also promoting adherence to universal collection, storage, transmission and matching standards and practices?

Sustained interoperability with our partners, both foreign and domestic, influences every aspect of our mission at US-VISIT. Our ability to successfully meet our goals rests in the development and deployment of fully interoperable technical solutions. Early and regular communication with our partners ensures that the records our stakeholders collect, can also potentially be matched and stored, and shared with our partners—resulting in the positive identification of known and unknown individuals in multiple environments. To do this, we work with many of our partners under several international fora:

– Under the Five Country Conference, we work with The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to exchange biometric information on immigration offenders, absconders and asylum seekers to identify common threats to our countries.

– Under the Group of Eight Migration Experts Sub Group (G8 MESG), we work with Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, France and Canada to identify best practices in the adoption of compatible biometrics systems. In 2010, US-VISIT led the development of the G8’s Best Practices of Biometrics Usage in the Travel Continuum Paper and we are now working with our G8 partners to distribute this document to countries outside of the G8.

– Under the International Civil Aviation Organization New Technologies Working Group (ICAO NTWG), US-VISIT is leading possible revision of the electronic passport Logical Data Structure to better meet the needs of countries using the biometrics stored in the travel document to screen travelers.

– Under the International Committee for Information Technology Standard (INCITS M1) and the International Organization for Standardization’s Sub Committee 37, US-VISIT has led efforts to ensure international adherence to common biometrics collection, storage and matching standards.

All of these fora provide critical opportunities for partner countries to address challenges, and implement interoperable processes. However, it is also worth noting that there is currently no single governance body that focuses on biometric identity management. As I introduced at the conference on biometrics in Bangkok a year ago, as more and more countries implement biometric screening systems, we need to ask whether it is necessary to establish a global governance body that will encompass all aspects of biometric identity management. A Biometrics Governance Body would become the comprehensive forum through which countries can explore why and how biometrics can be implemented to strengthen immigration operations.

Registered traveler programs will become another way to expand collaboration with our partners, facilitate information sharing and improve the overall traveler experience. In the future, a well regulated multilateral trusted traveler program will require one time applicant enrolment for participation in several participating countries’ travel programs. By expanding international partnerships in the delivery of a registered traveler program with a common international interface, the traveler has the benefit of operational uniformity and countries have the benefit of increased interoperability.

A few short years ago, the traveling public was resistant to the very idea of biometric collection and storage. Throughout the world, many fixated on what biometric collection would do to them — many maintained that biometric collections would result in delays in travel and even financial losses. However, with the advent of sophisticated biometric identity management systems, we have the ability to collect multi-modal biometrics, match in real time, and store locally on a chip to facilitate subsequent transactions. All of these developments have resulted in greater public acceptance of biometric collection. Now submission of a biometric means faster clearance through ports of entry, safer international travel and in some countries more streamlined access to government services. The state of biometrics today has moved past the plaintive question “what will biometrics do to me?” to become a more forward-looking “what can biometrics do for me?” Effective biometric identity management in the future will continue to heed public concerns and address security challenges all the while maximizing the efficiency of global travel.