US-VISIT is a governmentwide program intended to enhance the security of U.S. citizens and visitors, facilitate legitimate travel and trade, ensure the integrity of the U.S. immigration system, and protect the privacy of our visitors. To achieve its goals, US-VISIT is to collect, maintain, and share information on certain foreign nationals who enter and exit the United States; detect fraudulent travel documents, verify traveler identity, and determine traveler admissibility through the use of biometrics; facilitate information sharing and coordination within the immigration and border management community; and identify foreign nationals who (1) have overstayed or violated the terms of their admission; (2) may be eligible to receive, extend, or adjust their immigration status; or (3) should be apprehended or detained by law enforcement officials. The scope of the program includes the pre-entry, entry, status, and exit of hundreds of millions of foreign national travelers who enter and leave the United States at over 300 air, sea, and land POEs, as well as analytical capabilities spanning this overall process. The US-VISIT program office has responsibility for managing the acquisition, deployment, operation, and sustainment of US-VISIT. Until recently, the US-VISIT Director (currently Acting Director) reported directly to the Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security. However, as of March 31, 2007, the program office will report to the newly established Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate. Since 2003, DHS has planned to deliver US-VISIT capability in four increments: Increment 1 (air and sea entry and exit), Increment 2 (air, sea, and land entry and exit), Increment 3 (land entry), and Increment 4, which is to define, design, build, and implement more strategic program capability, and which program officials stated will consist of a series of incremental releases or mission capability enhancements that will support business outcomes. In Increments 1 through 3, the program has built interfaces among existing (“legacy”) systems, enhanced the capabilities of these systems, and deployed these capabilities to air, sea, and land POEs. These first three increments have been largely acquired and implemented through existing system contracts and task orders. Through fiscal year 2007, about $1.7 billion has been appropriated for the US-VISIT program. About $162 million of the $362 million appropriated in fiscal year 2007 funds has been released to the program. The remaining $200 million is pending the submission of an expenditure plan to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The department has requested $462 million in fiscal year 2008 for the program. According to program officials, as of January 31, 2007, almost $1.3 billion has been obligated to acquire, develop, deploy, enhance, operate, and maintain US-VISIT entry capabilities, and to test and evaluate exit capability options. The United States shares over 7,500 miles of land border with Canada and Mexico. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operates 170 land POEs on the northern border with Canada and the southwest border with Mexico. These POEs are diverse in nature, with some operating in urban areas, such as Detroit, Michigan, and others operating in remote areas such as the northern plains in Montana or along the southwest border. Taken together, land POEs process the largest number of visitors to the United States each year (about 79 percent of about 425 million total border crossings during fiscal year 2004) and process fewer visitors subject to US-VISIT than other POEs (about 11 percent of about 42 million border crossings processed via US-VISIT during fiscal year 2004). The volume of visitor traffic at land POEs in fiscal year 2005 varies widely, with the busiest four land POEs identified by CBP being San Ysidro, Calexico, and Otay Mesa, California, and Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, Texas. In many cases, the US-VISIT process begins overseas at U.S. consular offices where biometric information is collected from visa applicants and checked against a database of known criminals and suspected terrorists. When a visitor arrives at a U.S. POE, the biometric information is used to verify that the visitor is the person who was issued the visa or other travel documents. Ultimately, visitors are to confirm their departure from the United States by having their visas or passports scanned and undergoing fingerscanning. (Currently, at a few pilot sites, departing visitors are asked to undergo these exit procedures.) The exit confirmation is added to the visitor’s travel records to demonstrate compliance with the terms of admission to the United States. However, most land border crossers—including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and most Canadian and Mexican citizens—are, by statute or implementing regulation, not required to enroll into US-VISIT. In fiscal year 2004, for example, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents comprised about 57 percent of land border crossers; Canadian and Mexican citizens comprised about 41 percent; and less than 2 percent were US-VISIT enrollees. Figure 1 shows the number and percent of persons processed under US- VISIT as a percentage of all border crossings at land, air, and sea POEs in fiscal year 2004. Foreign nationals subject to US-VISIT who intend to enter the country encounter different inspection processes depending on their mode of travel. Those entering the United States at an air or sea POE are to be processed in the primary inspection area upon arrival. Before they arrive, these visitors generally are subject to prescreening via passenger manifests that are forwarded to CBP by commercial air or sea carriers. By contrast, foreign nationals entering the United States at land POEs are generally not subject to prescreening because they arrive in private vehicles or on foot and there is no manifest to record their pending arrival. Thus, when foreign nationals subject to US-VISIT arrive at a land POE in vehicles, they enter the primary inspection area where CBP officers—often located in booths--are to visually inspect travel documents and query the visitors about such matters as their place of birth and proposed destination. Visitors arriving as pedestrians enter an equivalent primary inspection area, generally inside a CBP building. If the CBP officer believes a more detailed inspection is needed or if the visitors are required to be processed under US- VISIT for the first time, the visitors are to be referred to the secondary inspection area that is generally inside a facility away from the primary inspection area. The secondary inspection area generally contains office space, waiting areas, and space to process visitors, including US-VISIT enrollees. Equipment used for processing includes a computer, printer, digital camera, and a two- fingerprint scanner. Under law, DHS was to create an electronic entry and exit system to screen and monitor the stay of foreign nationals who enter and leave the United States and implement the system at (1) air and sea POEs by December 31, 2003, (2) the 50 highest-volume land POEs by December 31, 2004, and (3) the remaining POEs by December 31, 2005. In developing the system, DHS was to focus particularly on the use of biometric technology and was also to collect biometric data upon entry and exit for all individuals, who are required to be processed through US-VISIT. However, after almost 4 years and more than $1 billion, DHS has implemented entry capabilities at most POEs but has not implemented exit capabilities. According to program officials, several factors have affected the program’s ability to develop, implement, and deploy a biometric exit capability. The program office has largely met its expectations relative to a biometric entry capability. For example, on January 5, 2004, it deployed and began operating most aspects of its planned biometric entry capability at 115 airports and 14 seaports for selected foreign nationals, including those from visa waiver countries; as of December 2006, the program office had deployed and began operating this entry capability in the secondary inspection areas of 154 of 170 land POEs. According to program officials, 14 of the remaining 16 POEs have no operational need to deploy US-VISIT because visitors who are required to be processed through US-VISIT are, by regulation, not authorized to enter into the United States at these locations. The other two POEs do not have entry capability deployed because they do not have the necessary transmission lines to operate US-VISIT; CBP officers at those sites have continued to process visitors manually. To the department’s credit, the development and deployment of this entry capability was largely in accordance with legislative time lines and has occurred during a period of considerable organizational change, starting with the creation of DHS from 23 separate agencies in early 2003, followed by the birth of a US-VISIT program office shortly thereafter—which was only about 5 months before the program had to meet its first legislative milestone. Compounding these program challenges was the fact that the systems that were to be used in building and deploying a biometric entry capability were managed and operated by a number of the separate agencies that had been merged to form the new department, each of which was governed by different policies, procedures, and standards. Moreover, DHS reports that US-VISIT entry capabilities have produced results. According to US-VISIT's Consolidated Weekly Summary Report, as of December 28, 2006, there have been more than 5,400 biometric hits in primary entry, resulting in more than 1,300 people having adverse actions, such as denial of entry, taken against them. According to the report, about 4,100 of these hits occurred at air and sea ports of entry and over 1,300 at land ports of entry. Further, the report indicates that more than 1,800 biometric hits have been referred to DHS's immigration enforcement unit, resulting in 293 arrests. We did not verify the information in the consolidated report.