High-tech system to track the flow of foreigners criticized

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WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security's program for identifying illegal immigrants and terrorists is unable to locate foreign nationals inside the U.S. or determine if they ever leave the country, a senior homeland-security official said Friday.

The DHS's $1.7 billion United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program is responsible for documenting all foreign travelers through use of fingerprints and digital photographs, as well as checking their names against criminal records and watch lists of suspected terrorists.

Started in January 2004, US-VISIT has succeeded in recording the arrivals of travelers in the U.S., said Robert Mocny, the program's acting director.

But Mocny acknowledged in testimony before members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that US-VISIT still is unable to determine when, or if, visitors leave the country, a goal set for the program at its creation.