Homeland Security: US-VISIT Program Faces Operational, Technological, and Management Challenges

Summarizes GAO¿s work on the Dept. of Homeland Security¿s (DHS) efforts to implement the U.S. Visitor & Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program at air, sea, & land ports of entry (POE). US-VISIT is designed to collect, maintain, & share data on selected foreign nationals entering & exiting the U.S. at air, sea, & land POEs. These data, including biometric identifiers like digital fingerprints, are to be used to screen persons against watch lists, verify identities, & record arrival & departure. This testimony addresses DHS¿s efforts to: implement US-VISIT entry capability; implement US-VISIT exit capability; & resolve long-standing mgmt. challenges that could impair DHS¿s ability to effectively implement the US-VISIT program. Charts & tables.

This book is devoted primarily to papers prepared by American and Russian specialists on cyber terrorism and urban terrorism. It also includes papers on biological and radiological terrorism from the American and Russian perspectives. Of particular interest are the discussions of the hostage situation at Dubrovko in Moscow, the damge inflicted in New York during the attacks on 9/11, and Russian priorities in addressing cyber terrorism.

'Triggered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada, the United States and Mexico redefined their public policies to facilitate the regionalization of transactions. However, this volume addresses the institutional gaps that still remain focusing mainly on the cross-border governance of security aspects. It gathers interdisciplinary contributions of specialists working on continental issues within Canada, the United States and Mexico and highlights the transnational dimension of certain issues still managed under national-framed policies. Furthermore, it explores the possibilities and constraints for moving public policy into new cross-border governance strategies. Divided in three parts, the first part assesses what is at stake in cross-border governance issues and whether the integrative trend in the region will be maintained or stalled in the years to come. The second part explores the growing scope of security problems interconnected with borders, migration, energy and drug trafficking across the region. It highlights how Mexico and Canada are responding or adapting their policy choices to a continental security approach framed by the US after the terrorist attacks of September 11, and to the major concerns of the Obama administration. The third part focuses on the governance of territorial borders and bilateral affairs, i.e. Mexico-US and Canada-Mexico relations.