Robert Mocny

Robert Mocny: The United States implements the world’s first biometrics border control program

This September the United States paid solemn tribute to the memories of close to the 3000 people who died twenty years ago on 9/11, 2001. Early that morning passenger planes commandeered by terrorists were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and another forced to crash in an open field in Pennsylvania by heroic passengers who believed it was headed for the Capitol in Washington, DC. What led to those events was investigated by then President George Bush’s Administration, the Congress, and many other public and private institutions. 

One finding consistent with all these reviews was that the United States needed to strengthen its immigration and border policies and procedures.  How did 19 terrorists slip through the visa and admission processes that had been in place for the past 50 years? In short, the United States needed to do a better job of sharing intelligence and identifying people with greater certainty.  This all led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology – or US-VISIT – program.  I was fortunate enough to serve as the first deputy director and later director of US-VISIT and had the honor to lead a few hundred dedicated professionals to create the world’s first biometric visa and border control program.

In 2003, when US-VISIT came into being through the leadership of DHS’ first Secretary Tom Ridge, biometrics was not a term most people were familiar with.  People understood fingerprinting for people who may be arrested or who may be applying for a teacher or bus driver job.  But biometrics as part of applying for a visa to the United States?  Biometrics taken from people arriving at our ports of entry?  Unheard of.

This was the challenge we faced at US-VISIT: How to develop the policies, processes, and technologies to allow for the capture of biometrics, in our case two index fingerprints, from the millions of tourists who visit the United States every year and not cause huge delays at our embassies and consulates overseas or at our more than 300 ports of entry.  As with any new process or technology we had to walk before we could run. 

At US-VISIT we worked with the Departments of State and Justice, as well our sister agencies now part of DHS – Customs and Border Protection, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement among others.  On, or near day one, US-VISIT established one of DHS’ first Chief Privacy Officers to ensure that whatever processes we put in place were clearly understood by the public as to why we were taking their biometrics; where we were storing their biometrics and; with whom we would share their biometrics.

We worked with technology companies to give them a clear understanding of what we required from them.  How accurate and how fast the capture devices needed to be. A few years later, when we wanted to capture all ten fingerprints as opposed to just the two index fingers, we told them what size the devices needed to be and even what color the devices should emit (the original glowed red and was seen as off putting to many and we insisted on a more acceptable color which is now the green glow you see on most fingerprint capture devices).

And as our allies stood with us after 9/11, we at US-VISIT worked closely with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to share our technologies and information.  After a while, the five countries developed a compatible system to share critical fingerprint and identity information that helped protect not only the individual countries, but all of us collectively as terrorists and international criminals do not limit themselves to just one country.

And through all of this, we needed to keep the public informed as to what we were doing and why we were doing it.  Why did we need their biometrics and what did we do with their biometrics?  At US-VISIT we had a robust Office of Public Affairs which coordinated public speaking engagements, participation on panels at conferences, and joining organizations that not only allowed us to speak to the public, but which actively supported the ethical use of biometrics.  One of the best forums we were able to be a part of was the Biometrics Institute.  As the Institute turns 20 years old this year it reminds me of how critical it was for us to reach out internationally.  Being a member of the Biometrics Institute gave us access to like-minded governments, technology companies, scientists and academics and discussion groups that gave us a platform to explain to the world what biometrics did to improve the security of the United States.

And during these past 20 years many others have adopted the use of biometrics and are exploring new modalities. The European Union developed Automated Border Control using facial recognition for EU citizens.  The United States Customs and Border Protection have embraced facial recognition to ease entry for US citizens and are piloting its use for exit control.  Apple lets you unlock your phone with your face. Amazon is using biometrics to expedite your shopping experience. The use of biometrics will continue to grow.

US-VISIT is now the Office of Biometrics and Identity Management (OBIM) and its senior leaders and many of the professional women and men of OBIM are active members of the Biometrics Institute.  As the use of biometrics continues to evolve and new modalities and technologies are created it is my hope that the Biometrics Institute will also evolve and grow the services it offers to its members. From its association with the United Nations to the publication of the Three Laws of Biometrics and the Good Practice Framework I suspect that 20 years from now there will be someone in the biometrics field today or in the future who will want to offer a similar tribute to the Biometrics Institute.

Robert A Mocny
Former Director of the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (Retired)
Member of the Advisory Council, Biometrics Institute

Robert Mocny joined the Institute with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2015