Border ID System First Part Of $10B EffortBorder ID System First Part Of $10B Effort

The fanfare surrounding the launch of the US-Visit immigration identification system last week merely marked the beginning of one of the government's most expensive, IT-intensive programs. The system deployed last week at 115 airports and 14 seaports is aimed at deterring terrorists from entering the country and requires most visa-holding foreign nationals to be photographed and digitally fingerprinted as they enter and leave the country.

But the $710 million so far appropriated for US-Visit is chump change compared with its ultimate cost: up to $10 billion, according to a request for proposals seeking a lead contractor for the future development of the program.

With Congress demanding quick action to secure U.S. borders, the Department of Homeland Security in about three months implemented the initial version of US-Visit by knitting together existing technologies, including Unix, Oracle 9i, Windows, and IBM zOS mainframe operating systems that pull data from 19 key, but aging, IT systems.

Many of these systems had been housed in agencies that were merged last spring into the newly created Homeland Security Department, with others maintained at the departments of State and Justice and the FBI. The systems perform functions such as tracking passengers' arrivals and departures, biometric and fingerprint identification, immigration lookout, and consular support. For instance, biographical data on terrorist watch lists managed by the FBI is shared with the US-Visit system. Databases used to track criminals by local law-enforcement agencies could tap into US-Visit, if appropriate clearance is granted, to collect data on criminals who try to enter the country.

"This is complex," says Homeland Security CIO Steven Cooper. "A lot of the sourcing of data is external from the federal government. That means we have to look at technical standards on how the information should be represented."

One of the more visible components of US-Visit is the border ID system, which uses Cross Match Technologies Inc.'s fingerprint-scanning equipment and off-the-shelf digital photographic equipment.

Contractors, including Computer Sciences, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and Unisys, helped to quickly tie together the technology. "This is the true integration of multiple environments, not what I would do if I was starting fresh," says US-Visit CIO Scott Hastings. But in many respects, the government will get a fresh start. By May, it hopes to pick a lead contractor to modernize what eventually will be a multibillion-dollar system. In this phase of the program, systems and networks will be set up to let the government strike a balance between enhancing border security and easing legitimate international trade and travel. The enhanced system will integrate real-time, transactional-level biographic, biometric, and watch-list information; improve system interoperability, integrating off-the-shelf technologies; and enhance collaboration among government agencies.

Among those expected to bid for the lead contractor spot are Accenture, CSC, and Lockheed Martin. IBM and EDS are potential subcontractors. In addition, integrator PEC Solutions Inc. received a $60 million, five-year contract last summer to furnish management support.

Over the next two years, the entry-exit system now being used at airports and seaports will be phased in at 165 land crossings. The United States maintains more than 300 land, air, and sea ports of entry, with 80% of entrants crossing on land from Canada and Mexico. "They have scale and accessibility issues, because many sites are off in the boondocks ... places like Montana," says David Lease, chief architect at Wamnet Government Services, a networking and storage-systems integrator that's talking with Lockheed, CSC, and Accenture about partnering as the networking expert on the long-term US-Visit contract. The system also will be installed at 211 U.S. consular offices around the world so digital fingerprint and photographic scans happen when visitors apply for visas.

In developing US-Visit, Homeland Security borrowed best practices from elsewhere in government. For instance, it adopted the Defense Department's program-office approach to managing complex, interagency projects. That office coordinates development and management of the system from among eight Homeland Security units, five cabinet-level agencies, the intelligence community, foreign countries, and local and state law enforcers.

In managing the system, Hastings reports to the director of the program and to Cooper. "I've had dual responsibility from day one to make sure that horizontally we're in compliance with [Homeland Security] architecture, and then Steve [Cooper] makes sure we're compliant with the federal architecture," Hastings says.

As the systems to support US-Visit evolve, they'll rely heavily on the federal enterprise architecture, which serves as a blueprint to link various governmental databases and systems. Ray Bjorklund, VP at the government-IT advisers Federal Sources says, "This is one of the first key platforms for creating this enhanced vision of information sharing."