DHS details future border-control system

Computerworld - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday offered the first public details of what the proposed U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology (US VISIT) system will look like when the first stage of deployment begins at the end of this year.
A request for proposals from industry for technology products is scheduled to be released by this fall, said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security at the DHS. The centerpiece of the new system, he said, will be biometric identifiers that will enable authorities to authenticate the identities and criminal histories of foreign visitors to the U.S. and track their movements more closely.
Starting next January, the DHS will authenticate a visitor's identity through a minimum of two biometric identifiers. During the initial stage of the program, fingerprints and photographs will be used, said Hutchinson. However, as the technology is perfected, additional biometric identifiers, such as facial recognition or iris scans, may be used too.
The information that will be captured along with the person's biometric identifier will include immigrant and citizenship status, nationality, country of residence, and the person's address while in the U.S. Eventually that data will also be integrated with the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, known as SEVIS, which is operated by universities to track foreign students. In addition, the data will be analyzed for violations by a new organization within the DHS Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement called the Office for Compliance.
"By Jan. 1 of next year, if a foreign visitor flies into Dulles or JFK or LAX or another international airport, or arrives at a U.S. seaport, the visitor's travel documents will be scanned," said Hutchinson, describing the new system for an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Then, once a photo and fingerprint are taken, the person will ... be checked against lists of those who should be denied entry for any reason -- terrorist connections, criminal violations or past visa violations."
Even as the Bush administration seeks ways to tighten border security, it moved today to raise the nation's terror threat level up a notch to "high." The move came in response to recent bombings overseas, according to news reports.
Before the DHS had released the details about the coming US VISIT system, a top security expert expressed concern about the lack of human behavior analysis in the U.S. border security program. Rafi Ron, the former chief security officer for the Israeli Airport Authority and the man credited with establishing the "sky