US-VISIT is a large, complex governmentwide program intended to collect, maintain, and share information on certain foreign nationals who enter and exit the United States; identify 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; detect fraudulent travel documents, verify visitor identity, and determine visitor admissibility through the use of biometrics (digital fingerprints and a digital photograph); and facilitate information sharing and coordination within the immigration and border management community. The US-VISIT Program Office has responsibility for managing the acquisition, deployment, operation, and sustainment of US-VISIT and has been delivering US-VISIT capability incrementally based, in part, on statutory deadlines for implementing specific portions of US-VISIT. For example, the statutory deadline for implementing US-VISIT at the 50 busiest land POEs was December 31, 2004, and at the remaining POEs, December 31, 2005. From fiscal year 2003 through fiscal year 2007, total funding for the US-VISIT program has been about $1.7 billion. In reports on US-VISIT over the last 3 years, we have identified numerous challenges that DHS faces in delivering program capabilities and benefits on time and within budget. In September 2003, we reported that the US- VISIT program is a risky endeavor, both because of the type of program it is (large, complex, and potentially costly) and because of the way that it was being managed. We reported, for example, that the program’s acquisition management process had not been established, and that US- VISIT lacked a governance structure. In March 2004, we testified that DHS faces a major challenge maintaining border security while still welcoming visitors. 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. Also, US-VISIT is to achieve the important law enforcement goal of identifying those who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas. Complicating the achievement of these security and law enforcement goals are other key US-VISIT goals: facilitating trade and travel through POEs and providing for enforcement of U.S. privacy laws and regulations. Subsequently, in May 2004, we reported that DHS had not employed the kind of rigorous and disciplined management controls typically associated with successful programs. Moreover, in February 2006, we reported that while DHS had taken steps to implement most of the recommendations from our 2003 and 2004 reports, progress in critical areas had been slow. As of February 2006, of 18 recommendations we made since 2003, only 2 had been fully implemented, 11 had been partially implemented, and 5 were in the process of being implemented, although the extent to which they would be fully carried out is not yet known. Currently, US-VISIT’s scope 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. However, most land border crossers—including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and most Canadian and Mexican citizens—are, by regulation or statute, not required to enroll into US-VISIT. In fiscal year 2004, for example, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents constituted about 57 percent of land border crossers; Canadian and Mexican citizens constituted about 41 percent; and less than 2 percent were US-VISIT enrollees. Figure 1 shows the number and percentage 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 at different types of POEs depending on their mode of travel. Those who intend to enter the United States at an air or sea POE are to be processed, for purposes of US-VISIT, in the primary inspection area upon arrival. Generally, these visitors are subject to prescreening, before they arrive, via passenger manifests, which are forwarded to CBP by commercial air or sea carrier in advance of arrival. By contrast, foreign nationals intending to enter 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 initially 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, the visitors are to be referred to the secondary inspection area—an area away from the primary inspection area—which is generally inside a facility. The secondary inspection area inside the facility generally contains office space, waiting areas, and space to process visitors, including US-VISIT enrollees. Equipment used for US-VISIT processing includes a computer, printer, digital camera, and a two-fingerprint scanner. Figure 2 shows how U.S. citizens and most Mexicans, Canadians, and foreign nationals subject to US-VISIT are to be processed at land POEs. As of August 2006, there were 170 land POEs that are geographically dispersed along the nation’s more than 7,500 miles of borders with Canada and Mexico. Some are located in rural areas (such as Alexandria Bay, New York, and Blaine-Pacific Highway, Washington) and others in cities (such as Detroit) or in U.S. cities across from Mexican cities, such as Laredo and El Paso, Texas. The volume of visitor traffic at these POEs varied widely, with the busiest four POEs characterized by CBP, in fiscal year 2005, as San Ysidro, Calexico, and Otay Mesa, California, and Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, Texas. My statement will now focus on what the US-VISIT Program Office had done to implement US-VISIT entry capabilities at land POEs and what impact US-VISIT has had on these facilities. At the time of our review, DHS had installed the entry portion of US-VISIT at 154 of the nation’s 170 land POEs, usually with minimal new construction or changes to existing facilities. As required by law, the US- VISIT entry capability includes biometric features—such as digital scans of 2 fingerprints—to help verify the identity of visitors. CBP officials at all 21 land POEs we visited told us that US-VISIT’s entry capability has generally enhanced their ability to process visitors subject to US-VISIT by providing assurance that visitors’ identities can be confirmed through biometric identifiers and by automating the paperwork associated with processing I-94 arrival/departure forms. Going forward, DHS plans to introduce changes and enhancements to US- VISIT at land POEs intended to further bolster CBP’s ability to verify the identity of individuals entering the country, including a transition from digitally scanning 2 fingerprints to scanning 10. While such changes are intended to further enhance border security, deploying them may have an impact on aging and space-constrained land POE facilities because they could increase inspection times and adversely affect POE operations. Our site visits, interviews with US-VISIT and CBP officials, and the work of others suggest that both before and after US-VISIT entry capability was installed at land POEs, these facilities faced a number of challenges— operational and physical—including space constraints complicated by the logistics of processing high volumes of visitors and associated traffic congestion. Moreover, our work over the past 3 years showed that the US- VISIT program office had not taken necessary steps to help ensure that US-VISIT entry capability operates as intended. For example, in February 2006 we reported that the approach taken by the US-VISIT Program Office to evaluate the impact of US-VISIT on land POE facilities focused on changes in I-94 processing time at 5 POEs and did not examine other operational factors, such as US-VISIT’s impact on physical facilities or work force requirements. As a result, program officials did not always have the information they needed to anticipate problems that occurred, such as problems processing high volumes of visitors in space-constrained facilities. Turning to another aspect of our work on US-VISIT entry capability, our December 2006 report stated that management controls did not always alert US-VISIT and CBP to operational problems. Our standards for internal controls in the federal government state that it is important for agencies to have controls in place to help ensure that policies and procedures are applied and that managers be made aware of problems so that that they can be addressed and resolved in a timely fashion. CBP officials at 12 of 21 land POE sites we visited told us about US-VISIT- related computer slowdowns and freezes that adversely affected visitor processing and inspection times, and at 9 of the 12 sites, computer processing problems were not always reported to CBP’s computer help desk, as required by CBP guidelines. Although various controls are in place to alert US-VISIT and CBP officials to problems as they occur, these controls did not alert officials to all problems, given that they had been unaware of the problems we identified before we brought them to their attention.