New US visitor tracking system to be launched later this year

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it will launch, later this year, a sophisticated system that will enable law enforcement authorities to monitor visitors who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas.

The new system – named the "USVISIT," which stands for the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indication Technology System – will make it difficult to overstay or illegally stay in the United States, or as Filipinos put it, to become TNT (tago nang tago).

The USVISIT system will monitor visitors’ entries and exits at international air and seaports, coupled with biometric identifiers, such as photographs, fingerprints or iris (eye) scans, to create an electronic check-in/check-out system for people who come to the U.S. to work, study, or visit.

The new high-tech monitoring system was announced last April 29, 2003 by Secretary Tom Ridge of the Department of Homeland Security at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

Secretary Ridge noted during his Press Club speech that the U.S., more than 25 years ago, stopped asking international visitors to register periodically with immigration authorities, which, he said, is actually mandated by several U.S. laws from the 1950s to the 1990s.

He said that while America wants to remain a "welcoming nation," "we want to keep the terrorists out without compromising the welcoming mat." He said that while the USVISIT system will make it more difficult to enter the U.S. illegally, it will expedite the processing for those entering the country lawfully. In addition, the USVISIT system will soon remove the necessity of requiring certain nationals to register with the BCIS.

The new system augments other programs that were already launched to effectively monitor the more than 35 million visitors who come to the U.S. every year. The DHS has required nationals of certain countries who are in the United States to register with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS). The DHS has also required all commercial carriers to submit detailed passenger manifests to the agency electronically, before any aircraft or vessel arrives in or departs from the United States.

This program (of monitoring entries and departures from the U.S.) is part of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002. Section 402 of that law requires that carriers submit, in advance of passenger arrivals or departures, information on all temporary foreign visitors. Among the information that the carriers must submit, whenever an alien arrives in, or departs from, the U.S., includes:

"Complete name; date of birth; citizenship; sex; passport number and country of issuance; country of residence; U.S. visa number; date and place of issuance (where applicable); alien registration number (where applicable); address while in the United States; and such other information as the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of State and Secretary of Treasury, determines as being necessary."

Under this law, when you check in at the airport in the U.S., you will be required to give your name, passport, etc., to the airline. The airline will submit that information (as part of its passenger manifest) to the BCIS, thereby pinpointing the exact date that you departed the U.S.

With this tracking system and the new USVISIT system (to be launched before the end of 2003), it will be extremely difficult for people who have overstayed to remain in the U.S. illegally without the authorities knowing about it. Even if you attempt to "backdate" your arrival in the Philippines, the BCIS would know once it has the accurate information of your actual date of departure. When you try to return to the U.S., on your visitor’s visa, claiming that you departed the U.S. years earlier (and try to show the back-dated stamp as proof of a shorter stay abroad,) the back-dated stamp will not tally with your airline information, the DHS will detect your fraud and put you on the next plane back to the Philippines. Or sometimes greencard holders stay for years in the Philippines, and attempt to cover up their lengthy stay outside the U.S. This tracking system could also foil these attempts.

In addition, if you were tago nang tago (TNT) for more than six months when you departed the U.S. on your "brief vacation," you could be banned from returning to the U.S. for at least three to ten years. Moreover, your fraud (in back-dating your departure from the U.S., or entry into the Philippines) could result in a lifetime ban from entering the U.S.

Obviously, the U.S. government is bent on cracking down on illegal aliens. Rather than taking chances, or risk getting caught with the usual fraudulent schemes, I suggest anyone who has an immigration problem to seek the advice of a reputable attorney, who can analyze their situation and advise them on the safest (and legal and legitimate) ways to legalize their status. Don’t take chances with something as important as your future in America.

Three offices to serve you: LOS ANGELES: (818) 543-5800; SAN FRANCISCO: (650) 827-7888; PHILIPPINES: 894-0258 or 894-0239

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Website: www.gurfinkel.com.