As the United States moves toward more stringent immigration policies, cooperation among all law enforcement disciplines will be necessary. Sharing immigration data nationwide will enable local law enforcement to assist with federal efforts.
Robert Mocny , Acting Director of the US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, announced that DHS and the FBI are working on a program to share federal immigration data with state and local law enforcement.
The major challenge has been the ability of emergency responders in the same city and across multiple cities and regions to talk to one another on their radios and be able to access information from respective data repositories. Interoperability among the emergency responder community is many times impossible due to technology differences in software. “What we hope this program will do is provide that one-stop shop, where you’ll see that person’s criminal and immigration history,” Mocny said. “Come September, we will be announcing the first initiative of the interoperability program where more and more of state and local law enforcement agencies will have more and more access to (immigration) information,” Mocny said on a panel discussing immigration issues at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures last week.
Mocny has had good experience with the US-VISIT program. Serving in the program since 2003, he was responsible for its daily operations. His duties included managing the development and deployment of the program, which integrates and makes available vital information to appropriate federal organizations for immigration and border management purposes. The program employs biometric technology to collect information like fingerprints and digital photographs from foreigners seeking entry into the US. The system is in place in 311 air and seaports and at US diplomatic missions abroad. Mocny stated: “We tell people: ‘We want you to come to the U.S., we want you visit our sights and our schools, but we want you to leave on time and respect our laws.”
The US-VISIT initiative has netted more than 1,350 wanted criminals or people using false papers to enter the country. Those arrested include “murderers in California, drug couriers in Florida and an illegal alien who was in federal penitentiary and escaped,” Mocny said. He stated that greater information sharing “sounds like something that should have been done long ago.” The challenge was?and to a degree still is–administrative hurdles with the various numbers of databases needed for information sharing. After 9/11 , the need to fuse intelligence became paramount to homeland security.
Cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies and intelligence fusion is paramount to securing the homeland. US-VISIT is setting the example. A central repository for access immigration data makes sense. The process will help with border security and enforce immigration policies.
