The US-VISIT program is a governmentwide endeavor intended to enhance national security, facilitate legitimate trade and travel, contribute to the integrity of the U.S. immigration system, and adhere to U.S. privacy laws and policies by collecting, maintaining, and sharing information on certain foreign nationals who enter and exit the United States; identifying foreign nationals who (1) have overstayed or violated the terms of their visit; (2) can receive, extend, or adjust their immigration status; or (3) should be apprehended or detained by law enforcement officials; detecting fraudulent travel documents, verifying traveler identity, and determining traveler admissibility through the use of biometrics; and facilitating information sharing and coordination within the border management community. The program involves interdependencies among people, processes, technology, and facilities, as shown in figure 1. Within DHS, organizational responsibility for the US-VISIT program lies with the Border and Transportation Security Directorate. In July 2003, DHS established a US-VISIT program office with responsibility for managing the acquisition, deployment, operation, and sustainment of the US-VISIT system and supporting people (e.g., inspectors), processes (e.g., entry exit policies and procedures), and facilities (e.g., inspection booths). DHS plans to deliver US-VISIT capability incrementally. Currently, it has defined four increments, with Increments 1 through 3 being interim or temporary solutions, and Increment 4 being the yet-to-be-defined end vision for US-VISIT. Increments 1 through 3 include the interfacing and enhancement of existing system capabilities and the deployment of these capabilities to air, sea, and land ports of entry (POE). 1. The first increment includes the electronic collection and matching of biographic and biometric information at all major air and some sea POEs for selected foreign travelers with non-immigrant visas. Increment 1 entry capability was deployed to 115 airports and 14 seaports on January 5, 2004. Increment 1 exit capability was deployed as a pilot to two POEs on January 5, 2004—one airport and one seaport. 2. The second increment is divided into two parts—2A and 2B. Increment 2A is to include the capability to process machine-readable visas and other travel and entry documents that use biometric identifiers at all POEs. This increment is to be implemented by October 26, 2004. Increment 2B is to expand the Increment 1 solution for entry to secondary inspection at the 50 highest volume land POEs by December 31, 2004. According to the US-VISIT Request for Proposal (RFP), 2B is also to include radio frequency (RF) capability at the 50 busiest land POEs for both entry and exit processes. 3. Increment 3 is to expand the 2B capability to the remaining 115 land POEs. It is to be implemented by December 31, 2005. 4. Increment 4 is the yet-to-be-defined end vision of US-VISIT, which will likely consist of a series of capability releases. DHS plans to award a single, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to a prime contractor for integrating existing and new business processes and technologies. DHS plans to award the contract by May 2004. According to the RFP, the prime contractor’s scope of work is to include, but is not limited to, Increments 2B, 3, and 4. By definition, US-VISIT is a risky undertaking because it is to perform a critical mission, its scope is large and complex, it must meet a demanding implementation schedule, and its potential cost is enormous. In announcing the US-VISIT system, the DHS Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security stated that the system’s goal is to “give America a 21st Century ‘smart border’—one that speeds through legitimate trade and travel, but stops terrorists in their tracks.” Achieving these goals is daunting: the United States shares over 7,500 miles of land border with Canada and Mexico, and it has approximately 95,000 miles of shoreline and navigable waterways to protect. In fiscal year 2002, there were about 279 million inspections of foreign nationals at U.S. POEs. In these circumstances, preventing the entry of persons who pose a threat to the United States cannot be guaranteed, and the missed entry of just one can have severe consequences. Relatedly, US-VISIT is to achieve the important law enforcement goal of identifying those among these millions of visitors each year who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas. Complicating achievement of these security and law enforcement goals are other key US-VISIT goals: facilitating the movement of legitimate trade and travel through the POEs and providing for enforcement of U.S. privacy laws and regulations. US-VISIT is to provide for the interfacing of a number of existing systems. It is also to support and refine a large and complex governmentwide process involving multiple departments and agencies. This process involves the pre-entry, entry, status, and exit of hundreds of millions of foreign national travelers to and from the United States at over 300 air, sea, and land POEs. The interfaced systems included in Increment 1 are Arrival Departure Information System (ADIS), a database that stores traveler arrival and departure data received from air and sea carrier manifests and that provides query and reporting functions; Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), a system that captures arrival and departure manifest information provided by air and sea carriers; Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS), a system that maintains lookout data, interfaces with other agencies’ databases, and is currently used by inspectors at POEs to verify traveler information and modify data; Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), a system that collects and stores biometric data about foreign visitors; Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a system that contains information on foreign students; Computer Linked Application Information Management System (CLAIMS 3), a system that contains information on foreign nationals who request benefits, such as change of status or extension of stay; and Consular Consolidated Database (CCD), a system that includes information on whether a visa applicant has previously applied for a visa or currently has a valid U.S. visa. Figure 2 shows these systems and their relationships. In addition to integrating numerous systems, US-VISIT also involves complex processes governing the stages of a traveler’s visit to the United States: pre-entry, entry, status management, and exit. These processes for Increment 1 are as follows: Pre-entry process. Pre-entry processing begins with initial petitions for visas. When the Department of State issues the travel documentation, biographic (and in some cases biometric) data are collected and made available to border management agencies. The biometric data are transmitted from State to DHS, where the prints are run against the US- VISIT IDENT biometric database to verify identity and to check the biometric watchlist. The results of the biometric check are transmitted back to State. Commercial air and sea carriers are required by law to transmit crew and passenger manifests to appropriate immigration officers before arriving in the United States. These manifests are transmitted through APIS. The APIS lists are run against the biographic lookout system and identify those arrivals who have biometric data available. In addition, POEs review the APIS list in order to identify foreign nationals who need to be scrutinized more closely. Entry process. When a foreign national arrives at a POE’s primary inspection booth, biographic information, such as name and date of birth, is displayed on the bottom half of a computer workstation screen, along with a photograph obtained from State’s CCD. The inspector at the booth scans the foreign national’s fingerprints (left and right index fingers) and takes a digital photograph. This information is forwarded to the IDENT database, where it is checked against stored fingerprints in the IDENT lookout database. If the foreign national’s fingerprints are already in IDENT, the system performs a match (a comparison of the fingerprint taken during the primary inspection to the one on file) to confirm that the person submitting the fingerprints is the person on file. During this process, the inspector also questions the foreign national about the purpose of his or her travel and length of stay. Status management process. The status management process manages the foreign national’s temporary presence in the United States, including the adjudication of benefits applications and investigations into possible violations of immigration regulations. ADIS matches entry and exit manifest data to ensure that each record showing a foreign national entering the United States is matched with a record showing the foreign national exiting the United States. ADIS receives status information from CLAIMS 3 and SEVIS on foreign nationals. Exit process. The exit process includes the carriers’ submission of electronic manifest data to IBIS/APIS. This biographic information is passed to ADIS, where it is matched against entry information. At the two POEs where the exit pilot is being conducted, foreign nationals use a self- serve kiosk where they are prompted to scan their travel documentation and provide their fingerprints (right and left index fingers). This departure record is then stored in ADIS (along with the person’s arrival record) and used to verify if a foreign national has complied with the admission terms of his or her visa. Key US-VISIT milestones are legislatively mandated. For example, the Immigration and Naturalization Service Data Management Improvement Act of 2000 requires that US-VISIT be implemented at all air and sea POEs by December 31, 2003; at the 50 highest volume land POEs by December 31, 2004; and at all remaining POEs by December 31, 2005.