The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program's goals are 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 visitors. It is to use biometric and biographic information to control and monitor the pre-entry, entry, status, and exit of foreign visitors. GAO was asked to determine (1) whether DHS has defined and economically justified a strategic solution for meeting US-VISIT goals; (2) the biometric technology options DHS has considered and the basis for the selected options; and (3) DHS's efforts to define, manage, and coordinate the relationships between US-VISIT and other immigration and border management programs. To accomplish this, GAO assessed key program documentation against relevant criteria and examined available biometric research.

DHS has partially defined a strategic solution for meeting US-VISIT's goals. In particular, the US-VISIT program office has defined and begun to develop a key capability known as "Unique Identity," which is to establish a single identity for all individuals who interact with any immigration and border management organization by capturing the individual's biometrics, including 10 fingerprints and a digital image, at the earliest possible interaction. However, the program office has yet to define and economically justify a comprehensive strategic solution for controlling and monitoring the exit of foreign visitors, which is critical to accomplishing the program's goals. Further, the department did not economically justify its ongoing investment in Unique Identity in a timely fashion. Specifically, the program office did not justify its investment until about 14 months after selecting and pursuing an alternative solution and obligating about $65 million. The absence of a fully defined strategic solution and timely economic justification hinders informed decision making about the best course of action for accomplishing strategic program goals and inhibits the ability to measure performance and promote accountability. DHS considered various biometric technologies, including fingerprints, facial, and iris technologies, and continues to use fingerprints as its foundational biometric technology. The focus on fingerprint technology is appropriate, given the opportunity to leverage existing DHS and Federal Bureau of Investigation identification systems and databases and to establish a single identity mechanism for all immigration and border management programs. In addition, research into fingerprints and other forms of biometric identification, such as facial recognition and iris scanning, show that fingerprints continue to be the most accurate biometric for identification purposes. DHS is taking a range of evolving actions, primarily at the department level, to coordinate relationships among US-VISIT and other immigration and border management programs. Thus far, this evolution has yet to progress to the point of reflecting the full scope of key practices that GAO has previously identified as essential to enhancing and sustaining collaborative efforts that span multiple organizations. To its credit, the department has defined common outcomes through its strategic plan and enterprise architecture and has taken steps to implement other collaboration practices, such as leveraging resources across its screening programs and developing screening performance indicators. However, the US-VISIT program office has yet to fully define its relationships with other immigration and border management programs. As a result, the department is at increased risk of introducing the inefficiencies and reduced effectiveness that result from suboptimizing how these programs collectively support its immigration and border management goals and objectives.

Status Legend:

Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

• In Process
• Open
• Closed - implemented
• Closed - not implemented

Recommendations for Executive Action

Recommendation: To ensure that US-VISIT's strategic solution, including a comprehensive exit solution, is better defined, economically justified, and coordinated, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Undersecretary for National Protection and Programs to have the US-VISIT Program Director (1) develop a plan for a comprehensive exit capability, which includes, at a minimum, a description of the capability to be deployed, the cost of developing, deploying and operating the capability, identification of key stakeholders and their respective roles and responsibilities, key milestones, and measurable performance indicators; and (2) develop an analysis of costs, benefits, and risks for proposed exit solutions before large sums of money are committed on those solutions, and use the analysis in selecting the final solution.

Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security

Status: Open

Comments: DHS has not developed a plan for a comprehensive exit capability. According to US-VISIT program officials, such a plan cannot be developed until DHS leadership issues a final rule on a biometric air and sea exit solution and approves a proposed land exit strategy, and these officials did not know when or if this would occur. In addition, the US-VISIT project development methodology shows that analyses of comprehensive exit project costs, benefits, and risks are dependent upon first agreeing on a project concept and assessing project options. Consequently, these analyses are also contingent upon DHS leadership decisions about the final rule for air and sea exit and the strategy for land exit. As of August 2011, DHS has not yet issued a final rule.

Recommendation: To ensure that US-VISIT's strategic solution, including a comprehensive exit solution, is better defined, economically justified, and coordinated, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the appropriate DHS parties involved in defining, managing, and coordinating relationships across the department's border and immigration management programs to address the program collaboration shortcomings identified in this report, such as fully defining the relationships between US-VISIT and other immigration and border management programs and, in doing so, to employ the collaboration practices discussed in this report.

Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security

Status: Open

Comments: DHS has established a US-VISIT Executive Stakeholder Board that includes senior executives from DHS headquarters and, for example, CBP, TSA, ICE, and the FBI, as well as programs such as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and the Secure Border Initiative, and this board has been meeting once a quarter. However, as of August 2011, DHS has yet to provide any evidence to demonstrate that this board has defined relationships between US-VISIT and other programs or otherwise employed the collaboration practices embodied in this recommendation.