2:00 p.m. EST
MODERATOR: Welcome to the Foreign Press Center. Today we're very pleased to have with us Mr. Robert Mocny, the Director of the US-VISIT Program with the Department of Homeland Security. And he's here to discuss the transition from the 2- fingerprint to 10-fingerprint process and he'll have some opening remarks and then take your questions.
Mr. Mocny.
MR. MOCNY: Thank you, Eric, and good afternoon, everybody. My name is Robert Mocny. I am the Director of the US-VISIT Program, the Department of Homeland Security's biometric program. And on behalf of DHS, I would like to thank the Foreign Press Center here in New York for coordinating today's briefings.
We're here today to inform you about the changes to the system we use to collect biometrics, which in our case are digital fingerprints and photographs, from international visitors at our ports of entry and at our embassies overseas.
But before I go into the details of this change, let me describe US-VISIT for those of you who may not be too familiar with the program. US-VISIT provides U.S. visa-issuing posts and ports of entry with biometric technology that enables the U.S. Government to establish and verify the identity of visitors to the United States. We analyze and securely store visitors' biometric data. Authorized consular and immigration officials use this information to help them make visa issuance and admission decisions.
Since US-VISIT was created in 2004, we have collected two fingerprints from non-U.S. citizens between the ages of 14 and 79 when they arrive at our ports of entry or when they apply for visas. So far, this has been enormously successful for enhancing the security of the United States and facilitating travel for legitimate international visitors.
Why are we taking these biometrics? Because unlike names and dates of birth, biometrics are unique and almost impossible to forge, and identity fraud is a real problem. Since 2001, Interpol has amassed a database of almost 10 million lost or stolen passports. Using biometrics helps protect our visitors from identity theft should their travel documents be lost or stolen.
At the same time, biometrics help the United States prevent fraud and stop criminals and immigration violators from entering our country. So far, we've stopped almost 2,000 people - criminals and immigration violators - based on the biometrics alone.
I'm here today to talk about how we are taking our biometric identification capability to the next level. DHS is beginning to collect all 10 fingerprints instead of just two from visitors to our country. The State Department has already begun collecting 10 fingerprints from visa applicants at all embassies and consulates to enhance our ability to establish and verify applicants' identities.
We're now expanding this capability to our ports of entry to improve our ability to accurately identify travelers upon their arrival. As part of this transition, US-VISIT is also upgrading to faster technology to speed the processing of visitors.
On November 29th, Customs and Border Protection officers began collecting the additional fingerprints from visitors arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport. Since then, we've also begun collecting 10 fingerprints from visitors arriving at five other airports: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston. By the end of February, we plan to have this capability at New York's JFK, Detroit, Orlando and Miami's international airports. We will test 10-fingerprint collection over the next several months at these airports and will use the lessons learned from the test to determine the best way to expand the capability nationwide.
What I can tell you is that the tests are working well. The technology is working just as we had planned. So far, we have processed more than 66,000 visitors with the new system at these initial airports without increasing wait times. Initial anecdotal evidence indicates that visitors find the new process easy and - easy to navigate and unobtrusive. We are encouraged by these early successes and we plan to have this capability at all ports of entry by the end of this year, December 2008.
Now, there are two primary reasons why we're collecting these additional fingerprints. First, collecting additional fingerprints gives us more information against which to verify a visitor's identity. It makes the process faster and more accurate. This will enable us to reduce the number of mismatches or false positives in our system when legitimate visitors are mistaken for dangerous people. Reducing mismatches makes travel more efficient for the legitimate visitor and it enables us to focus our attention on those who pose a risk to the United States.
The second reason for upgrading the fingerprint is a 10-fingerprint collection standard represents a quantum leap in our ability to collect better, more actionable information on people attempting to travel to enter our country. When a visitor arrives at a port of entry, we will be able to check him or her not only against a list of names that we have, but also against fingerprints picked up any place terrorists have operated internationally.
The international community is moving to a similar standard, and this will help bolster this return even further. The United Kingdom and the European Union are moving towards a 10-fingerprint collection standard for anyone who needs a visa to the UK or to the EU. And as you no doubt heard, Japan just recently began collecting biometrics from visitors.
Together, we are eliminating terrorists' ability to travel to our countries. At the same time, we're making legitimate international travel more convenient, more predictable and more secure.
Biometrics are powerful tools for decision makers to use, but they also raise legitimate privacy concerns. We view privacy as a fundamental human right, and preserving it is an integral part of our mission. We do not believe improving security and protecting privacy are mutually exclusive. In fact, we just published a privacy impact assessment for our new transition to the 10-print collection -- a standard practice whenever we update or establish new programs that require rigorous privacy protections.
We pursue the highest level of privacy protections for our visitors. In fact, we apply aspects of the U.S. Privacy Act, which legally only applies to citizens and legal permit residents, and we apply aspects of that act to foreign nationals who visit our country. We do this because we want visitors to have the confidence that their personal information will be protected from abuse. As we begin collecting additional fingerprints from visitors, US-VISIT remains committed to protecting their privacy.
US-VISIT is also committed to outreach and public information. We know that outreach is essential to helping us meet our goal of enhancing security while facilitating legitimate travel and trade. In fact, we attribute much of the program's success to our efforts to ensure that people who touch US-VISIT in any way understand how it works and how it will affect them. As we transition to a 10-fingerprint collection, US-VISIT and Customs and Border Protection will work together to avoid confusion, clarifying misperceptions, and assure that travelers have the information they need when arriving at our ports of entry.
In closing, this transition to a 10-fingerprint collection will further enhance security and protect our nation from dangerous people while making the process faster and more accurate for millions of legitimate visitors that we welcome each and every year. Thank you, and I'll be happy to answer any of your questions.
MODERATOR: Please be sure to identify your country and organization, and also wait for the microphone. Thank you.
QUESTION: Hi. Eva Schweitzer, Die Welt . You said 2,000 people were stopped, so how many of them were criminals, how many of them were immigration violators, and how many of them they're maybe terrorists?
MR. MOCNY: A mixture. I don't have the exact numbers. That's an estimated number. It goes up every single day. These people are lying their way or attempting to lie their way into the United States. They're coming to a Border Protection officer and saying I'm this person when, in fact, they're wanted for a crime they committed several years ago. So by having these fingerprints, they can change their name, they can change their date of birth --
QUESTION: No, I understand. But how many of them are approximately criminals and how many are immigration violators?
MR. MOCNY: I don't have the breakdown.
QUESTION: Is the majority immigration violators?
MR. MOCNY: I think it's probably a mix of both. There are quite a few immigration violators, but we also have quite a few criminals, people who have, again, committed crimes in the States and elsewhere. We get information from Interpol, the International Police organization, and we're able to identify individuals through that process as well.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Neeme Raud, Estonian TV. There has been talk that European visitors have to register like a day or two before via internet when they want to plan a trip to United States. Is that plan going to be working soon, or how this going to work?
MR. MOCNY: There is a new provision, not part of the US-VISIT process but part of the Visa Waiver Program called Electronic Travel Authority and there's going to be some forms that a foreign national would begin to fill out before arriving. But that's not part of US-VISIT.
QUESTION: Thank you. Andrej Klemencic, Slovenia . I am wondering, are there going to be any significant changes to the Visa Waiver Program for the countries that apply in terms of some biometric information being collected from them if not only going towards a visa but towards a more restricted policy , for example, as a colleague from Estonia was saying? Thank you.
MR. MOCNY: Right now, anybody who has a visa, is required to have a visa for the U.S. or who comes under the Visa Waiver Program, which is 27 countries that don't require to go to a consulate or embassy overseas, they still go through the process as well. So anybody with a visa or anybody coming under the Visa Waiver Program will go through the 10- finger scan process now as we roll this out -- at the airport, correct.
QUESTION: Hi, Mario Calabresi, La Repubblica, Italy. I would like to know how long is the process and do you think that it will affect wait times? And the second question, how much the new machine cost?
MR. MOCNY: Sure. The machines right now are around 2-2,500, between $2,000 and $2,500. Those costs will come down as we buy more of these as we put them out throughout the ports of entry.
The process is pretty quick. The technology that we're using didn't really exist but a couple of years ago and we have been working with the industry to make sure that we develop the process that doesn't hold up people at the ports of entry. So where these 10-print devices in the past have been very large and very slow and not very user-friendly, we went out to industry and said we need faster, small and more user-friendly devices. They responded and we have two companies right now that we are using and testing their devices.
But it's very quick. It just takes a few seconds. They're very accurate. They're -- again, to the traveler using them, they're quite unobtrusive.
QUESTION: My name is Seana Magee with Kyodo News. I understand you're going to Japan next week and I was wondering if you could elaborate what you're going to do, who you're going to meet with. And you had mentioned Japan had introduced the biometric system. Is there anything you've learned from Japan that you're incorporating here? Thank you.
MR. MOCNY: Yeah, I'm going there to participate in some meetings. There's some G-8 subgroups that are meeting over there, so I'll be taking part in them, explaining the US-VISIT program to them, but then also to meet with Japanese immigration officials so that we can both learn from each other. They implemented the two-print system with a photograph on November 20th of this year, in large part having worked with us a couple of years prior to that to try and learn how we implemented the program. And so we're both going to try and now sit down together and see a way forward with this system, as we have with the UK and as we will with any country that implements this program.
QUESTION: What happens to the fingerprints? How long do they stay in the system and where they go from this port of entry?
MR. MOCNY: Right. The fingerprints are stored in a system called Ident. It's a database that we manage -- the Department of Homeland Security, US-VISIT manages. Right now we have about 90 million fingerprints in that system. That's growing at --
QUESTION: Ninety?
MR. MOCNY: Ninety, 9-0, 9-0. Yeah, 90. Growing at about 20 million per year,
20 to 23 million per year. And we keep that information for 75 years. Now, it seems like a long time. The system we're using was designed several years ago, and at that time the number of years was deemed to be appropriate for a study that was occurring. We're look at that as a policy to see do we need to adjust that accordingly.
We do, again, print anybody from the ages of 14 until 79. And one of the reasons we need to have the information for as long as we do is people will come back on a regular basis, on a repeat basis; we want to have that fingerprint available to, again, ensure that identity. We want to make sure that we're locking the identity in so that no one else can masquerade as them should they lose their passport. So 75 years.
QUESTION: It seems to be a major problem about people are getting on a list of being a suspect terrorist and there's no process they can get off again. So I'm not really sure if that targets US-VISIT, but there are a lot of complaints about people who have filed again and again. They are not identical, but it doesn't work, so it's --
MR. MOCNY: Yeah, I think you're referring to perhaps the name, the biographic information.
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. MOCNY: So they may have a name similar to a terrorist and they have a difficult time when they're encountered.
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. MOCNY: There is a new process called TRIP and there is a process for redress to get that cleared up if we provide additional information. Oftentimes, it's just John Clark and that's all the information we may have on the person. That - the good John Clark can give us additional information through this process called US-TRIP, which would allow us to better and more uniquely identify that individual and remove them from the watch list. So if there are people out there, they can go through a process to have that information corrected.
QUESTION: Thank you. Now can you explain to me what is the difference between two fingers and 10 fingerprints? You know, because you can change your finger and - do you understand? You have your fingerprints, you have --
MR. MOCNY: I don't want to get too technical here, but basically, the system -- with 90 million fingerprints in the system, there's a lot of fingerprints. When the system only has this much information to look at, it's not quite sure if you're the good guy or the bad guy, so it misidentifies a false match that says we need to look at you more intently, so we have to put you in a secondary area.
When that happens, we have human fingerprint examiners who look at the fingerprint that was just taken at a port of entry or at a consular post overseas, and they look at the one on file and they can make a determination with the human eye and the human brain and they can make a determination, no, it's not the bad guy, so let the person go.
Well, those people are inconvenienced for a short period of time. By the time the CBP officer gets the - Customs and Border Protection officer gets the information, that person has been inconvenienced for a 15, 20-minute, half an hour - who knows. Having 10 fingerprints makes that much more accurate, so by the system looking at all 10 fingerprints, less people will be misidentified because it has a lot more data to look at.
And the second reason is this. If you - the Department of Defense - we work in conjunction with the Department of Defense and with the FBI. They collect latent fingerprints. Prints left behind at a scene of a crime or perhaps at a terrorist training camp, we'll pick those fingers up. If this bottle of water was found and they were drinking it like this, we would miss them. By having all 10 fingers, we're now going to have a better way of knowing who are the criminals and who are the terrorists. So having more fingerprints makes it faster and more accurate; it also makes it more secure.
QUESTION: I have two questions. Tomasz Deptula, Polish Newsweek. Correct me if I'm wrong, but after 9/11, there was some problem with connecting and making compatible of all databases you have. So what databases the immigration officer and the immigration officer has access to at the checkpoint? That's the first question.
The second question is, aren't you afraid that, you know, increasing control on the border would make the United States image even worse than it is now? It's - since so many people, you know, don't come to the United States because of border controls.
MR. MOCNY: Well, we hope, you know, we can change the perception, then. America has always been and will remain a welcoming country. We will - we will do our best to make it a secure country as well.
With respect to the databases, that is one of the amazing things post-9/11 with US-VISIT and working with many other agencies, is that we have been able to provide additional data to decision-makers. Having fingerprint information is of vital importance for that decision-maker.
I can give you an example. A person applied for a visa in Costa Rica. The person went through the two-finger scan process, did not hit on any watch list. He was given that visa. And subsequent to that giving of the visa, we got new information from Interpol and when we had that information, we reran the fingerprints to see, have we seen this person. And lo and behold, he was not a Costa Rican national as he first told the consular officer. He was, in fact, a Bulgarian national who had absconded from the EU with $13 million 10 years ago. So we were able to get his visa and cancel it, obviously, and extradite him back to Bulgaria.
So this additional information which we haven't had in the past is critical. And that's why it's critical that we share information, appropriate information with the appropriate authorities so that these decisions which could have been made one way and have been made one way can be made the other way, the more correct way, by having this additional data, both biographic and biometric information.
QUESTION: Larisa Saenko from Russian TV, RIA Novosti. Please give us more detail about JFK airport. How many of these devices are you planning to install? Do you have some plan to increase your staff? What about lines in JFK?
MR. MOCNY: We're still in the planning stages. We're going to probably be out there the end of February. We have to make some additional changes to the systems out there, so we haven't quite settled on the exact number or the exact number of terminals. But we probably will be coming out with an announcement when we get closer to that date. End of February, we'll have more information. I don't have all the numbers right now with me.
But we won't - we're not adding additional officers to this process. Again, we're using technology to try and help the officer make that decision a little bit better by providing him or her with additional tools. So this doesn't add people to the process; it tries to leverage technology to alleviate some of the issues at ports of entry.
QUESTION: You said there have been some cases of misidentification with only two fingerprints. How many cases are these? Per year or (inaudible)?
MR. MOCNY: Again, we can get the numbers. They have gone down dramatically. We had a lot in the beginning.
QUESTION: A couple of - hundreds or thousands or tens?
MR. MOCNY: Oh, it would be in the thousands, yeah, yeah. So we'd be - Anne Hague (ph) can get you the numbers. We have had a large number in the beginning stages. We made some technical fixes to the system. There's a lot less now. Adding this 10-print process, we'll have even less than what we have right now.
QUESTION: Hi, Leila Luna, Brazil. Luna News is my company. You said that you - it is done already somewhere in America, right?
MR. MOCNY: At - right, the 10-fingerprint collection?
QUESTION: Yeah.
MR. MOCNY: Yes, we're now at - where did I say? We're at Dulles, Washington, D.C. --
QUESTION: Dulles --
MR. MOCNY: -- Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Houston.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. MOCNY: And then by the end of February, we're going to be going to JFK, Detroit, Orlando, and Miami.
QUESTION: What about Newark?
MR. MOCNY: Those - these are just the test sites, so --
QUESTION: Are you considering Newark as a New York airport?
MR. MOCNY: Well, after the tests are run, after we evaluate the tests to make sure that we've kind of got it right, then we're going to go to all the other ports of entry. So by the end of December 2008, all air, land, and sea ports of entry will have this new technology.
QUESTION: I'm asking this because Newark Airport is considered a New York airport.
MR. MOCNY: Newark will get it. Yes, absolutely.
QUESTION: Not in the end of February?
MR. MOCNY: No.
QUESTION: Later?
MR. MOCNY: No, no, just - just JFK.
QUESTION: Okay, thanks.
MR. MOCNY: Thank you.
QUESTION: What is the deadline for a (inaudible) country to introduce visa --
MR. MOCNY: December 2008.
QUESTION: When?
MR. MOCNY: December, this year, end of this year.
QUESTION: You've said that you voluntarily decided to apply the Privacy Act to foreigners. What does that exactly mean? What can you not do with those fingerprints?
MR. MOCNY: Well, we publish the privacy impact assessment and we publish our privacy policies on the internet, so I would like you to take a look at that to get the specifics. There are a couple of things that we do. We certainly inform them how we're going to use the data and we're going to inform them how - you know, with whom we're going to share the information.
But I think the most important aspect of this is they have redress. If a foreign national believes that there's information in our database that's incorrect, they can call or email, they can contact us and we can correct that information, or we can inform them about why they're being detained or why they're being not let into the country, what crime did they commit in their past that prevents them entry into the U.S. And so we're --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
MR. MOCNY: Pardon me?
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
MR. MOCNY: Yes, yes. I mean, they have to ask, obviously, and then - I guess the point is they have an ability to kind of reach into our office and kind of ask questions and fix things if they need fixing. We don't fingerprint diplomats and oftentimes, in the confusion of the port of entries - it's been a long flight, you're tired and you just kind of do it - whoops, I shouldn't have done that. So that diplomat - and there have been diplomats in the past who have called our office and says, "Can you take my fingerprint out of the system," and we will.
So I think it's an important aspect that they have this redress and they have an ability to kind of reach in and kind of ask the questions that normally, it's a much more laborious process to ask. But as I said, we apply not all, but many aspects of the Privacy Act to foreign nationals.
QUESTION: So with whom are you sharing these fingerprints?
MR. MOCNY: Well, again, it's all published in the privacy impact assessment so you can take a look at that. We share it with various government agencies. We share it with the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We have some pilot programs that we'll be working with local law enforcement. That's just immigration data. It's not your typical visitor. We share it with, of course, within DHS. We have a program with the Coast Guard where they have some mobile devices in the Mona Pass, which is an area between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, so the Coast Guard has access to our information. So there's a variety of law enforcement entities within DHS and, of course, the Department of State, we share that information as well. So it's a variety of agencies. Again, it's all spelled out in the privacy impact assessments.
QUESTION: To make clear, U.S. citizens and permanent residents don't have to? You don't have any plans to fingerprint them in the future?
MR. MOCNY: Yeah.
QUESTION: What about, like, Canadians who - passing?
MR. MOCNY: Yeah. U.S. citizens, no, but we have published a proposed rule and we're now going to be publishing a final rule on adding additional aliens that will include legal permanent residents, it will include additional Canadians; not your casual visitor, not your person here for business or pleasure, but students, nurses, that type will also go through US-VISIT when this final rule gets published, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, couple of months.
QUESTION: And another question. There has been talk about the iris scans and all that. Are you already looking forward to different technologies that might be better than fingerprints and faster?
MR. MOCNY: We are. We are. In fact, as part of this deployment with the new 10-print devices, we're installing higher resolution cameras to potentially used for facial recognition, but we're also looking at iris scans for the reasons that you just stated. It can be a lot more fast getting through processes. But again, the fingerprints are the choice; they're the kind of base biometric because that's the one that kind of connotates and determines criminality if, in fact, there is criminal history in that person's past.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: It's as a follow-up to the Canadian question, a question about Canada. And how do you want to get fingerprints from people travelling in cars? I can imagine that on the crossings like Niagra Falls, Seattle, or Tijuana, it's like a logistical nightmare.
MR. MOCNY: Yeah, terrific question and I think perhaps you might be referring to an exit. Let me tell you briefly what happens at the land border. It's different from the airports. Airports, every single primary lane, when you first queue up after you get off the plane where you go for the interview, that's where the finger scans are taken. Of course, now, it's going to be the 10.
And I do want to say it's going to be 10 the first time that we see that individual or 10 the first time the State Department sees that person. Generally, the second time that we see that person, if the prints are of good quality, we only need four. So the first time, it's 10 fingerprints. Once we have those, we store those fingerprints, thus creating the identity, and then afterwards we would use four to verify. And so that's why we think at the airports and the seaports, you're going to see the lines move a little more quickly over years because if you only have to put down one hand, it takes about 2.6 seconds at this point, that's going to be a lot less time to have - to even do both - two fingers.
To the land border issue that you refer to, if someone is subject to US-VISIT, they will go in the secondary area. They'll go past the primary booth there, they'll park their car, they'll get out and go to an office while they go through the fingerprinting process. And so anybody who would go through US-VISIT is kind of set to an office space for them to deal with. Again, it only takes a few seconds. With respect to --
QUESTION: And park their car? You make additional area?
MR. MOCNY: No, it's the way it happens today. People who - people who are going to go through US-VISIT have to have certain paperwork - nurses, students - and so they would have to go into the secondary anyway. And by policy, what we've decided to do is just do it for the length of that particular time, which is usually six months. So they go through it once, go through the fingerprint process, be processed, and it'll come through normally on a day to day basis if they're, in fact, a nurse or a student, and the next time around, the next six months, they would do it again.
QUESTION: In terms of the (inaudible), how long are you adding, say, in the 10 fingerprints?
MR. MOCNY: We're seeing a slight uptick in the time only because it's new equipment. It's a new process. Customs and Border Protection also kind of modified the terminals a bit. They're now using a mouse, so the officers are kind of getting use to all these various pieces of technology. So you're seeing a slight uptick, but that's going to last for a very short period of time, I believe, as they get used to this process, as foreign nationals get used to the process. And about 40 percent of our people are repeat customers. They're people who travel on a regular basis, be it business, students, visitors. And so if you kind of do the math and look at, you know, 40 percent of your population coming through a second and a third and fourth time and they're just putting one slap down at two seconds, that should over time, make the process much more efficient. So, yeah, initially we're going to see a little bit of an increase in time, a couple of seconds, but that's only because it's new. We believe over a time period it's going to come down.
QUESTION: How do you do it -- with your full hand?
MR. MOCNY: I can demonstrate for you. This is one of the devices here. So very small, lightweight, compact. As I said, the ones that were before were about the size of a breadbox or a microwave oven, very unwieldy, very slow and cumbersome. This weighs but nothing. It's 6x6x6, very small. And --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
MR. MOCNY: Sure, sure. There's two ways of doing it right now. There's a three-slap process and a four-slap process. This is -- we're going to learn some new terms here. In Dulles and some locations, we're going first the right hand, then the left hand, then two thumbs together. That's at Dulles. In Atlanta, we're testing a four-slap process, so first the right hand, the right thumb, left hand, left thumb.
Why are we doing that? We're doing that because sometimes people in the practical world will actually have bags on their shoulders or are perhaps carrying a small child, and we want them to be able to hold that child and still be able to do this, and then they shift the bag or the child and then do this. So the four-slap process -- again, this is why we test this. We're testing three-slap process or press process at one location and a four at another so that we can say what's the most efficient and then make a decision to say we're going to go three or four and then roll it out nationwide. So there will be continuity with the process as we roll this out nationwide.
QUESTION: Can we (inaudible)?
MR. MOCNY: Sure. So first the right hand, then the left hand, then two thumbs. Okay, that's the three-slap process. Now the four-slap process is first the right hand, then right thumb, right hand, right thumb.
QUESTION: And the secondary is then just one?
MR. MOCNY: And the next time we see that person, if they were a good set of prints, he walks up, just one hand, and that's it. And the system knows that. So the system, when the see the individual, because we have the biographic information ahead of time, we know who that person is and the system says we already have a good set of 10 prints on him, just take four. And again, over time, by giving that officer -- the information to the officer and having them process that way, it should speed things up.
QUESTION: It means that the immigration officer doesn't have to ask you -- the tourist -- have you been here before or he just knows after scanning the passport or --
MR. MOCNY: Right. Because it's linking the biographic information along with the biometric information so it says, yes, I know who this person is, you only have to take four this time. Now sometimes, again, if the prints aren't of good quality, they might have to take 10 again. People as they age, they can become deteriorated, day laborers who work out in the fields or with bricks can lose some of that. So if they're not of high quality, then they may have to take 10 again. But I think for the vast majority of people are just going to be the four slap the second time.
QUESTION: What (inaudible) cyber crime and we all hear all these questions about like people coming into computer systems and they break them down. How do you protect the system?
MR. MOCNY: It's a very rigorous security policy. We practice, you know, extreme measures of protection, like firewalls. It's just, you know, we test it on a regular basis.
QUESTION: Is it internet-based?
MR. MOCNY: No, it's not internet-based. No, so we have our own dedicated network and, no, it's very well protected.
Yes.
QUESTION: You just said --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. MOCNY: Okay, one more time. First, the right hand, then the left hand, then two thumbs; or first the right hand and then the thumb, left hand and the thumb.
QUESTION: What is the budget of the US-VISIT program?
MR. MOCNY: What is the --
QUESTION: The budget.
MR. MOCNY: Oh, the budget. To date we have spent $1.7 billion on the program as of -- from 2004. We just reached $1.7 billion. And we just received $462 million from the Congress for the year 2008.
QUESTION: And you said the system applies also for permanent residents, the green card holders?
MR. MOCNY: No.
QUESTION: And it has not done previously.
MR. MOCNY: Correct.
QUESTION: Why not U.S. citizens? I mean, that' s a huge security breach. Every terrorist just needs to get a fake or a stolen U.S. passport and can come in the country and it is not controlled.
MR. MOCNY: It is currently not the policy of the Department of Homeland Security nor is it the mandate from the Congress. We -- I can only speculate. But the Congress has to weigh that question and they have to make a decision to add U.S. citizens as part of this process.
QUESTION: I mean, (inaudible) years from now?
MR. MOCNY: I'd be speculating and it's probably not my role to do that.
MODERATOR: We have time for a couple more.
QUESTION: Yeah, I just want to ask you a question. (Inaudible) a couple of minutes ago I found somebody who had an injury in their finger and he had some hard time getting through the security. In those cases, if there's a genuine -- somebody had cut their finger or injury, how will your program deal with that? And the second question is: What is the main difference between fingerprinting one finger as opposed to all the 10 fingers?
MR. MOCNY: If there is injury or amputation, there's a protocol for dealing with that so -- and there was with a 10 finger that certainly is going to be for the 10-finger ones as well. So we can notate that the person is missing a digit or both hands. I mean, that's going to occur. It's an annotation you make to the record. It's just a fact of life that we have deal with and so we'll have the biographic information or, you know, not a full set of 10 fingers if they're damaged or if they're missing.
I think answering the gentleman from Italy's question about why 10 fingerprints, there are two reasons. Number one, it's more accurate so less people get sent back to secondary, less people are inconvenienced if it's a false match. And then number two, we collect latent prints across the globe and within the United States, and by having all 10 we're able to match obviously against the other eight that we're not taking right now.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) New York? Oh, sorry. Have you decided?
MR. MOCNY: (Inaudible.) I don't think we decided yet.
QUESTION: The two-process one -- which one they're going to use in New York of the two options?
MR. MOCNY: We can get back to you. I don't know if we've decided. I think we're seeing how Atlanta goes, and if it's so much faster we may just say, let's just do that.
QUESTION: And there's a time difference, presumably?
MR. MOCNY: A slight time difference. It's more convenient to the traveler. It's the real world of you get off a plane, you've got a bag on your shoulder and you don't have to put that down.
QUESTION: Right. You do the one. Okay.
MR. MOCNY: Yeah.
QUESTION: I'm sorry. When are you going to use this land port Canada?
MR. MOCNY: The 10-print device?
QUESTION: Yeah. When?
MR. MOCNY: Again, I don't know the exact date, but by the end of December we should be at all the -- if not at the major --
QUESTION: Because we have to consider that people cross the border to go to Niagara Falls and Canadian side, and sometimes a buses with 50-55 people inside. It's going to take forever.
MR. MOCNY: Well, again, this applies to people who have a visa or are coming under the Visa Waiver Program. It's only 14-79, so it's not everybody. It's not the casual Canadian visitor. So if it's a Canadian person coming over here or a U.S. citizen going over there, they're not going to go through the process for casual visiting. It's only those who are here on a long-term basis, such as nurses and students and other people who are going to be living here for -- and are working here. So it doesn't apply to everyone.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) they have the procedures of Canada. And then way back in a few hours they're going to stop --
MR. MOCNY: Who are you referring to though? I'm missing the --
QUESTION: No, I'm thinking about the visitor. They come to New York, then they have, let's see, an extension of the trip to Niagara Falls, the Canadian side.
MR. MOCNY: Right.
QUESTION: They have to go through the Canadian procedures on the bord (ph). In a few hours they're going to stay in an American bord (ph) again. But, you know, now -- how long it takes to do this procedure?
MR. MOCNY: A few seconds. A few seconds.
QUESTION: A few seconds.
MR. MOCNY: Yeah. Again, if you have a visa or you're coming under the Visa Waiver Program, you would go back into secondary anyway. You have to get processed there. That's just the way things are. Now, there are some provisions about -- and I can't get into all the specifics of it, but there are 30-day extensions and those things that kind of help people who are traveling, you know, freely across, especially on the Visa Waiver Program. And I think maybe our Custom and Border protection officer would be better at answering that question. And not to put her on the spot, but I'm not with CBP so there are provisions that allow for land border travel which is different than air. So we can certainly put you in contact with Anna Hinken (ph) or she certainly can answer your question or get your question answered as to how inconvenient it might be or maybe not because of these automatic -- what we call automatic revalidation. I used to be an inspector a long time ago so I forget all the laws, so forgive me.
QUESTION: Is the switch from two to 10 fingers the only big change that we're going to see in 2008 in terms of visa and Visa Waiver Program? Thank you.
MR. MOCNY: Probably, except for one other and we will be publishing, hopefully shortly, a notice of proposed rulemaking on exit. The Congress was very clear in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act that they wanted biometric exit as well. And so we are going to begin working with the airlines and the airports -- at air and seaports eventually to try and have a biometric exit program in place by the end of this year.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. MOCNY: Pardon?
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. MOCNY: Well, what -- again, the beauty of the kind of NPRM, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking process, is it allows you to engage in conversation on paper with entities that are affected. So we'll talk about the number of fingerprints. We'll certainly talk about where this occurs, whether it's at the check-in counter, perhaps at a kiosk, perhaps at the gate. We want to work with the airlines to have it most operationally effective.
We had a pilot program for a couple of years where we had biometric kiosks at 10 -- excuse me, 12 airports and two seaports. The problem was the placement of those kiosks made it very difficult for the foreign nationals who left from those airports to check out. They couldn't find them. And so the technology worked great. It was the location of the devices. And so what we learned was if we're going to do any kind of biometric exit, then we have to put it as part of the traveler's continuum.
And this is really to kind of answer the question that the U.S. has had for many, many years, which is, how do you have an effective exit program. We don't have the infrastructure like you have in Europe, like you have in Australia, like you have in Japan, where you go through an actual departure control process. People who leave this country just basically hand over their departure card to the airline attendant, go through TSA and get on a plane.
The Congress has required us, and we are now going to implement a process by which there will be a departure control process. It will involve biometrics but it's going to be as minimal intrusion to the traveler's exit from the U.S.
QUESTION: My next question is: Do you have any idea how many officers you have at immigration at the borders in totally?
A PARTICIPANT: There's about 18,000 officers currently.
QUESTION: Eighteen. Okay, thank you.
QUESTION: My question is about physically challenged people. If a man is armless, for example, without fingers, what is his chance to visit USA?
MR. MOCNY: All the -- as good as anybody else. As I was telling the gentleman over here, there is an exception process that we have, a way of notating on the screen actually which fingers are missing or if both hands are missing. And so they're still welcome to come to the U.S. The fact that they don't a way to do that, we still have the photograph of the individual. So anybody who is handicapped or in anyway missing fingers should not feel that they can't travel to the U.S. They absolutely can. We'll account for that and accommodate for that.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. MOCNY: Not yet, not yet.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. MOCNY: Puerto Ricans, no. No.
QUESTION: I've got a question about this exit kiosks that existed. They exist in 12 airports and I -- one of them is Atlanta, I believe.
MR. MOCNY: They were. We stopped the program last May.
QUESTION: Just stopped the program.
MR. MOCNY: Right, right.
QUESTION: But did the people who failed to check out in this test program have any problems reentering the United States?
MR. MOCNY: I don't know if there were any reentering. I do know there were several who, when the exited the U.S., they were overstays and so they had overstayed their visa. And so the next time they tried to apply for a visa they were prevented from getting that visa or if they tried to come back into the country. But it would be because of something they overtly did, which is overstay their visa.
Thank you very much for coming. I appreciate it.
