Homeland Security asks industry for border security ‘vision’

Homeland Security Department officials want the private sector to take the lead in developing and implementing a plan to track the 300 million foreign nationals who visit the United States each year.

Immigration and border security laws passed in reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks require that by the end of 2005, the identities of all foreign nationals must be verified whenever they enter or leave the country. By the end of this year, all visitors must submit copies of their fingerprints to the Homeland Security Department. The prints will be logged into a database and used to identify the visitors on any return trips.

One of the nation’s most ambitious security initiatives, US VISIT, will be designed and implemented by contractors, because Homeland Security officials are burdened with larger tasks, such as merging the department’s component agencies.

“We need your best advice, because frankly, the department is struggling to maintain its current business objectives,” Scott Hastings, the chief information officer of the department’s immigration enforcement bureau, told a gathering of technology executives in Northern Virginia Thursday.

That advice will come in the form of bids companies will likely submit next year, after the government issues a formal request for proposals. Officials said they wanted proposals to be neutral, not favored towards particular companies or the technologies they sell, adding that the department wasn’t above using ideas in the proposals without selecting the company that crafted them.

“We’re trying to get [your ideas] for nothing,” Hastings told the crowd. “It really is a model for how the department will run.”

Jim Williams, a former Internal Revenue Service procurement chief who is leading the VISIT program, characterized the plan as a cornerstone of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism strategy. Noting that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were in the United States with expired visas, Williams said VISIT would have to be designed to find the “needle in the haystack” that represents a potential security risk.

According to the government, 42 million foreigners and permanent residents entered the country through airports and seaports in fiscal 2002. Nearly six times that number, about 238 million, arrived at land border crossings.

Those land crossings present security officials, and the government’s eventual contractor, with their biggest challenge. Critics of US VISIT have said commerce could be effectively halted if vehicles bearing goods are held up because of a lengthy security check. Ultimately, US VISIT will have to process every visitor in a matter of seconds to prevent huge traffic jams at the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Williams said he wants a prospective contractor to “re-write” the government’s current set of immigration practices so that the flow of goods and people isn’t hindered. Contractors should also submit proposals on how to inspect visitors beyond U.S. ports of entry, Hastings said.

Officials want to “discover people that are of interest to us” before they enter the country, whenever possible, and will have to enlist the support of foreign governments and State Department consular offices to do so, Hastings said.

Bidding companies would be asked to submit a “vision” for the program, which would build on technologies and practices in place now, Williams said. However, the funds to pay for the near term work are limited. VISIT received only $330 million for the current fiscal year, and that figure includes money for administrative costs. Williams said he’s “comfortable” with the amount proposed for fiscal 2005, but he wouldn’t reveal the figure, since the president has yet to submit the budget.

Meanwhile, the field of competitors for the project has narrowed to three teams. Lockheed Martin Corp. is leading a group consisting of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and IBM Corp. Another consulting firm, Accenture, leads a team that includes Dell Computer Corp. and military contractor Raytheon. And Computer Science Corp. rounds out the field with partners Electronic Data Systems Corp. and a division of Northrop Grumman. Bechtel Corp., which is currently the government’s main contractor for the rebuilding of post-war Iraq, is also part of the team.

"By the end of this year, all visitors must submit copies of their fingerprints to the Homeland Security Department."

Goodby Free America and welcome to Germany 1943.

Williams said he wants a prospective contractor to ?re-write? the government?s current set of immigration practices so that the flow of goods and people isn?t hindered.
Can we get a prospective contractor to "re-write" our tax laws too?

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4 posted on 10/12/2003 7:41:15 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)

Goodby Free America and welcome to Germany 1943.
Yeah. Because Germany was overrun with immigrants in 1943.

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