P.T. Wright
Acting Deputy Director of US-VISIT
Press Conference and Demonstration
Brussels, Belgium
June 25, 2007

Mr. P.T. Wright: Thank you very much for coming this afternoon. I appreciate it. You should have received a fact sheet that I’ll be speaking to some of the information that’s on here, specifically with the pilot locations. I won’t list those all in my presentation but they are listed here for your publications or your broadcasts.

We’re going to be looking at the 10-print devices that are being deployed at U.S. embassies and consulates around the world as well as beginning in the later part of this year at 10 airports in the United States. We’ll begin piloting the 10-print capture devices.

In January 2004, the US-VISIT program began capturing at all the airports and then subsequently our land border ports a two-print biometric capture of visitors to the United States from VWP [Visa Waiver Program] countries as well as from Visa countries.

The purpose of the biometric was to enhance the security of the United States, and at the same time to provide greater security for the travelers coming to the United States. What we’ve encountered in the last four years is improved security as well as greater facilitation of the traveler coming to the United States that goes through the process. It’s a very quick and simple scan of the fingers. It’s not the traditional 10-printing that many people thought we were going to do. What you’re going to see is you’re going to actually see how we’re going to move from the two-print to the 10-print capture.

At the ports of entry this will be done in the same amount of speed as we do a two-print capture because of the improved technologies.

One of the questions I’m often asked is why are we moving to a 10-print capture? Well, it’s pretty basic. Ten prints give you the full gallery of a person’s fingerprints. This will allow us to not only have greater security because we’ll be able to identify dangerous people beyond just the two prints; but also it allows us to begin facilitating individuals as our print galleries grow in size.

To date we almost have 100 million prints. As more people arrive and that grows --

Question: How many?

Mr. Wright: 100 million. As that number grows, we anticipate that the best way we can facilitate their arrivals is to have the 10-print because this will reduce what’s called a mismatch. If you have the full capability to take a person’s prints, there’s a greater chance that there will be no misidentification on them. This also protects their security in that no one but themselves can be identified by those biometrics. So that’s part of the reasons.

The final part, of course, is it’s the world standard. In fact the EU and the United Kingdom are also planning to deploy a 10-print digital scanning capability as part of their visa application process to the EU countries and the United Kingdom. They are developing that.

So we believe as we all move to a world standard, the 10-print is that standard to use.

That’s the very basics of what the primary reasons of moving to a 10-print are. The plans are, by the end of this year at all the embassies and consulates where you can go to obtain a visa, or are required to go for a visa to come to the United States, we’ll have the ability to take the 10-print -- and you’ll see those devices here, and some of you have already seen those being demonstrated -- at the ports of entry, 10 major ports of entry including JFK, Miami, Orlando, and Dulles. Those airports will have piloting of a 10-print device by the end of this year and full deployment to all the airports by the end of next year. You’ll see that device and a demonstration of what the screen will look like for the port of entry at the end of the room over there on the table.

I think I should have hit most of the highlights of why we’re moving to 10-print. I think one of the things we learned when we did the two-print device was by coming to the countries where so many visitors come to the United States and giving them the information in advance and showing them the process, we’ve found that it reduced the concerns about going through the process as well as seeing the process and understanding the process on their arrival in the United States. It makes their processing a little faster. So that’s one of the reasons why we’re coming, to start talking about it now so people will be prepared for it and will understand it and can not be surprised by it.

Are there any questions?

Question: Could you also tell us something, Mr. Wright, about [inaudible] procedures that are being considered now by the U.S. Congress? And is it [inaudible] Homeland Security Department that the Congress [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: You’re asking with regard to the Visa Waiver [VWP] Country legislation. Visa Waiver Country participation is a law in the United States. It requires congressional action to make any changes in the VWP, what we call the VWP process. That’s why it is before Congress. What the Department of Homeland Security is doing is asking the Congress to strengthen the requirements as well as improve the requirements to make that a better program which will perhaps allow other countries to qualify for inclusion in the VWP process.

The Congress is currently…we have two legislative bodies in the United States, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Both have passed changes to the VWP legislation, but they’re slightly different versions, slightly different bills. Our process is they do what’s called a conference committee. The conference committee between the two legislative branches will agree to a single bill, and that’s where it is now. So the details are still being worked out between the House and the Senate. But we are hoping that what will result from that is not only improvement for the individuals and countries who would qualify for VWP, but a strengthening for our security purposes for the program.

Question: Could you discuss it a bit more in detail, what people for whom this Visa Waiver Program applies will have to do? Is there any kind of form on the internet or something like that?

Mr. Wright: There’s 27 VWP countries today. The legislation might allow for expanding that number of countries, so that would be the audiences. Of course most of the listeners and readers in your broadcasts or readership are from VWP countries so they’re allowed to come to the United States for 90 days without visa for tourist or very short business purposes.

What we’re talking about are enhancements to that program. The specific that you’re asking about with regards to possible use of the internet or some other electronic transmission of information is still speculative at this point. It may or may not be included in the legislation. Again, because VWP, the Visa Waiver Program is specific U.S. law, it requires the Congress to basically detail out what will and will not occur as part of that law. That’s why to probably go beyond that would be somewhat speculative on my part.

Question: Is it on the request of the Homeland Security Department that Congress is considering this specific decision?

Mr. Wright: The Department of Homeland Security is supporting changes in the Visa Waiver Program that may include that, yes sir. I think Secretary Chertoff has spoken about this in his previous visits here. But details beyond that, again, it’s before the Congress.

Question: What would be the earliest date with which [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: Again, the Congress will mandate the dates, or can mandate the dates, I should say, as to when it will go into effect. Again, that would be very speculative for me to guess what that might be.

Question: Early [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: Again, Congress will lay out the specifics of when it will be demanded to be implemented.

Question: When exactly will the [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: Well, today if you’re required to get a visa and you come to the embassy here you go through the 10-print process. By the end of the year all American embassies and consulates where you go and make application for a visa, you go through the process.

By the end of this year at the 10 airports that are in your fact sheet there which include JFK, Dulles, Miami, Orlando, those locations will have the devices and will be piloting testing them.

For those of you back in January 2004 when we began this at all the airports, before we did that we used Atlanta as one of our pilot locations to test the two-print capability. We did that to make sure that when we went to deploy this at all the airports the Customs and Border Protection officers had an opportunity to work with it and retool their processing so the traveler had no additional wait times or no additional areas to be concerned about going through except going to the officer and presenting their passport and going through the routine entry process.

Question: How long [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: We currently store our fingerprints for an indefinite period. There are no plans to ever remove those prints from our process. [Editor’s note: Mr. Wright later corrected himself to say that the U.S. keeps prints for 75 years.]

Question: What agencies have access to those prints?

Mr. Wright: We have a very unique privacy policy in which we try to treat our foreign visitors with the same privacy protections we give our U.S. citizens so we do some specific publishing of information as to who has the rights to that information and how that information is used, and that’s available through going to our web site. You can look at the full list of how that information is used, how the biometrics is used, and who the users of that are.

Question: Could you give us some examples where this particular system has [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: Beginning, again, with the process in January 2004, we have encountered criminals of all types from very very serious criminal and immigration violators to imposters of individuals who have stolen someone’s passport, who have stolen someone’s visa and tried to gain entry under that person’s name to the United States. There have been over 2,000 interceptions based on the biometric process alone at the ports of entry, and at the consulate offices overseas, there have been literally thousands of cases where an individual, because of their biometric, was required to go through further processing to answer questions that initially appeared questionable, or in fact were turned away for questionable reasons or for having been previously removed from the United States.

Question: This is in order to protect from fake passports and from stealing of identities?

Mr. Wright: That’s one of the great benefits to the traveler that they receive from this. The United States uses the biometric watch list to look for known and suspected terrorists and known and wanted criminals, as well as violators of U.S. immigration law. So we have about 3.5 million biometric sets of information in our system on those categories of individuals who we would want to prevent from coming to the United States.

Question: Three and a half million who are not welcome in the United States?

Mr. Wright: They’re on our watch list, yes.

Question: How many did you intercept here?

Mr. Wright: I would have to defer that to the local embassy officials to answer that because we don’t maintain the stats [statistics] in that fashion and I don’t know how the State Department does that exactly. They just report to us the total universal number to the department.

Question: You told us that you can find criminals, you can find [behavior risks] but the databank has access too, the FBI, the CIA maybe have access to the databank? Can --

Mr. Wright: When I talk about the watch list, what we call this is we call this a promotion to the watch list. These are prints that are furnished to the Department of Homeland Security from all the law enforcement agencies in the United States. So they’re loaded and they can come from multiple sources -- state, local, federal sources -- as well as Interpol provides us with prints and other nations provide us with serious criminals or potential terrorists as well.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mr. Wright: Yes, they do.

Question: So you do get also data for fingerprints from other countries like Middle East countries or any country in the world that might provide you with fingerprints? Otherwise you don’t have fingerprints to compare the person [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: One of the reasons why we’re moving to 10-print is to have a universal standard so there can be greater sharing between the nations of the world with fingerprints. Right now there is not a system in place that this routinely and regularly happens. It’s like when a very serious criminal is wanted by a country they may share that with Interpol or they may share it with the FBI on a case by case basis.

What ultimately would be the goal would be for there to be a way for your biometrics when you’re traveling around the world, one of the great potential uses for using the biometric is to identify trusted travelers from country to country that could then move more seamlessly between the countries. So there’s a great expediter factor here as well as law enforcement factor that has the potential some day as the various nations of the world move to the biometric.

Question: [Inaudible, about whether this system would have allowed the U.S. to identify the 9/11 hijackers]

Mr. Wright: The system in place today, we have begun entering into our watch list categories serious over-stays into the United States, and the process would have detected them as over-stays. It would have reported, if they had reapplied for admission at the consulate offices, some of them -- not all of them -- would have been flagged as having over-stayed their visa and would have required additional questioning by the consulate offices perhaps. One individual was traced back and was what we believe the 20th hijacker, was turned away. Subsequent to the 9/11 event, we actually went back and identified that print back through the system.

Of course when 2001 happened there was no biometric capability at the ports of entry. Today as our systems become more sophisticated and as we move to a more robust immigration process for the United States, overstaying one’s visa will become more and more readily identified to the consulate office or to the port official when that person next enters the United States.

Question: [Inaudible] 3.5 million [inaudible] on this watch list, and also [inaudible] over time, over years, you can [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: One reason why we’re moving to 10-print is the 10-print is virtually 100 percent match accuracy. When your 10 prints are compared to a set of your 10 prints, we’re going to know that that’s you, so that’s a virtual 100 percent accurate reporting of an individual’s identity.

The answer to your question is pretty easy. The US-VISIT process is only applied to non-U.S. citizens. So all of the fingerprints are foreign citizens. There are not U.S. citizens in the watch list.

Question: Do you ever [inaudible] fingerprints to any other [inaudible] measure?

Mr. Wright: Our system is designed so as better and greater technologies or faster technologies come into play, such as facial or retinal scans, that we’ll be able to move to those as verifiers, if you will. The United States believes that as a foundation biometrics the fingerprint is the foundation biometric. So once your identity is established using the fingerprint and your identity is fixed, then we believe for verifying we can move to any of the future technologies as they become better and faster. Again, looking to move you more quickly through the process when you arrive in the United States.

Question: The system could [inaudible] DNA in the future?

Mr. Wright: This does not include DNA, in this process. When I say we’re building the system for the future, we’re talking about with regards to quick capture in the traditional sense, such as facial recognition, eye scan, those type of things.

Question: The current system I believe already takes a photograph of the visitor.

Mr. Wright: That’s correct. The process you’ll go through, and I know some of you have already seen it demonstrated. Today on the single fingerprint device you put down your left index finger, then your right, then the officer takes a photograph of you. The process will be the same when we move to 10-print except you’ll do four, four, and two with the photo.

Question: Does this apply to children as well?

Mr. Wright: Currently the ages are under 14 and over 79 do not go through the process. There’s no plans to change that at this time.

Question: Over 79?

Mr. Wright: If you’re over 79 or under 14 you don’t go through the process.

Question: In terms of the move towards retina or facial recognition, have you any idea when that might [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: Again, sharing information with other countries, there’s various tests and various pilots going on and programs going on by many of the countries. We’re studying them and watching and seeing how accurate they are and getting reports back from those countries as they conduct those tests in those areas.

It’s hard to say. Breakthroughs in technology, literally a year ago this device did not exist, the 10-print device. One reason we started off with two, we always wanted 10, but one reason we started off with two was the technology out there to do, again, taking a finger scan in 10 seconds and reporting it back to the officer with regards to that scan, the only technology that could do that was the two-print device.

A year ago the Secretary of Homeland Security challenged industry to come up with a device that would do that at a port of entry, that could capture 10 as fast as it does two. Industry responded. And so a year later we’re out ready to start testing those devices. They’ve been field tested, now we’re going to move into the model testing at the port level to go through actual port processing to see how well they continue to perform. But currently, these 10-print devices have lived up to doing it as fast as the two-print.

Question: A question on the national [inaudible] authorization. You might have to [inaudible]. Do you have any idea when people might have to apply for 24 hours, 48? Will it cost anything?

Mr. Wright: I think what’s real important for your readers and listeners is for us not to speculate at this point. The US-VISIT program, we come out when we’re ready to inform and show and demonstrate the process. I think the same thing will happen when we’re ready to implement any type of electronic process or pre-sending of information, if you will, by the traveler to the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of State.

When the law is changed and that becomes a process, then we would be able to be very specific and I think it’s too early now to speculate on what those details would be.

Anna Hinken (US-VISIT Public Affairs): I have a clarification, we keep the biometric data, [inaudible] data for 75 years, not for the entire --

Mr. Wright: I guess I misspoke, because I know I’m not going to be around here in 75 years, so I guess that’s what I had in my mind when I heard that number. Thank you, Anna.

Question: Whenever I think about fingerprinting, in Europe we generally think about criminals. I know that the number of [inaudible] in America on [inaudible]. The number of students [inaudible] since September 11 and [inaudible] security [inaudible] brought in. Is there a danger in that all these extra security measures are [inaudible] negative impression [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: Initially any time there’s a new process I think there’s always concern, but what we’ve actually found and in surveying the individuals who go through the process, first of all it’s not fingerprinting in the historical TV drama concept of someone going in and putting ink on their fingers and putting their fingers down on a piece of paper. This is a very clean and fast, digitally taken finger scan.

Secondly, while there was a decrease in student visas to the United States post 9/11 that number has begun to turn around and each year it grows again. And when you actually talk to the universities, I speak to many of the colleges when they have meetings of the admission officers that oversee foreign admissions, they tell me that the students all report that the process goes extremely fast, and they’re giving us suggestions for enhancing that and making it even faster for the student, and we hope at some future date to be able to make the process where the student doesn’t even have to leave primary.

Presently it’s a two-step process. They do most of the information on primary. That’s the first place you stop when you arrive in the United States, and the very first Customs and Border Protection officer that interviews you and speaks to you and takes your prints and takes your photo, that’s called our primary. Then you move to secondary if you have to further process. Currently our system requires the students to go back to there.

We’re looking to be able to move that to primary so that the student doesn’t have to go back and “take a number” so to speak. That’s the only hang-up we get now talking to all the admissions counselors, they tell us the students report that the only problem they’ve encountered is sometimes they get behind somebody who is sort of like if you go to the bank and the person in front of you has a lot of bills and all you want to do is run your ATM card but you have to go for whatever reason, and this person is counting out. Well, you get behind somebody like that, that’s the slow-down for the students as we receive reporting today.

So we hope we’ll be able as future improvements are made to the process to make their arrival even swifter into the United States.

Question: If I understand [inaudible], you come over here for a visa, [inaudible] two fingerprints, 10 fingerprints. It goes right from here to the Homeland Security database, it’s immediately checked [inaudible], and it’s [inaudible].

Mr. Wright: That’s what happens at the port of entry. It’s a 10-second response time against the watch list. At the consulate offices it’s a longer response time because the information is run against the entire database that the US-VISIT maintains for the State Department biometrically. So it’s a longer --

Question: -- come here?

Mr. Wright: I believe it adds, I’ll let them answer the question.

U.S. Embassy to Belgium Consular Officer: The time varies. But we’re typically able to issue the visas the next business day. So it’s not taking long.

Question: You mentioned world standards on the security [access]. [Inaudible] you mentioned the EU and the United Kingdom. Are there any negotiations, any agreements on the way? Do you share technology? Do you share experience from the U.S. [inaudible]? Are there any other countries or any other regions in the world [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: There’s quite a number of countries that are engaged in exploring biometrics -- Australia, Japan come to mind. In addition some of the Middle Eastern countries are as well.

I pointed out the EU and the UK because I know that their visa programs are preparing to deploy a 10-print capture device. In fact, the EU sent a representative when our Secretary Chertoff announced the 10-print device that we were going to request industry to develop. They actually had a representative there. So from a technological sharing of information and things, we’re at that level right now with them, the same with the United Kingdom.

Question: Did you have an agreement with the EU on sharing information from [inaudible] companies? [Inaudible]? Are you willing to [inaudible]?

Mr. Wright: I’m sorry. With which agreement now?

Question: The agreement to share data from airline companies.

Mr. Wright: That currently, I know that Secretary Chertoff and his counterparts, the Ministers, are negotiating that and I guess we’ll have to wait and see what is the results of those negotiations.

Question: Just to get this clear. If a would-be terrorist would like to come to the United States, someone who has never been a suspect and has never been interrogated by any law enforcement agency in any country, anywhere in the world, he would still be able to do so even with the 10-fingerprint [inaudible].

Mr. Wright: Well, one of the reasons Secretary Chertoff is so committed to the biometric process is the ability to have a 10-print set that could be run against latent prints. He believes, and law enforcement officers believe, that when you’re engaged in criminal activity there are opportunities where law enforcement agencies may come across your fingerprints without having knowledge of who you are. But because you may have been in a terrorist training camp or because you have been in a safe house that was used by terrorists, or because you may have actually helped make a bomb and your print was removed off of some of the exploded materials, that those prints would thus be able to be identified.

So even though we wouldn’t have your name and even though we wouldn’t know who you were, the fact that your print was associated with one of those locations would give us pause to ask that person more questions before allowing them into the country.

Question: At what point will tourists and visitors be asked to print out of the country [inaudible].

Mr. Wright: We are currently talking with the airlines to implement an exit program. Plans are actually tentative at this point. We are engaged with them. There is an opportunity that the full deployment of air exit may be as early as the end of next year. But that’s going to depend on the pilot programs that we hope to test before the end of this year.

As you know, we were testing pilot exit at 12 airports. One of the things that it informed us was that if possible we need to build the exit process into the departing traveler’s departure process, and not have them go to a separate kiosk or have to go looking around for where this machine is. So what we’re hoping to do is taking from that information and putting the exit process as part of their departure process, through the check-in process.