|  NEW
U.S. VISITOR TRACKING SYSTEM TO BE LAUNCHED LATER THIS YEAR
by Michael J. Gurfinkel, Esq.
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.
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