Measures seek to extend border from American shores

Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) recently introduced a pair of bills authorizing two programs that are part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to extend the border far from American shores.

McSally said the bills would codify the Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM), which delivers identity services as the steward of the DHS biometric repository.

She said the effort would also aid the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in storing and matching biometric data as part of the exit/entry program, and the Immigration Advisory Program (IAP), which deploys U.S. Customs officers overseas to ensure that dangerous aliens are prevented from boarding airplanes bound for the United States.

“Both of these programs provide necessary services to secure our homeland and protect our borders. Congress has passed multiple laws since 2004 mandating the creation of a workable biometric exit/entry system and OBIM is vital to that program’s implementation,” McSally said. “IAP also ensures that dangerous individuals are not able to board planes headed to America. These common sense bills formalize them in statute.”

Officials said OBIM provides biometric identity services to DHS and other federal agencies that are vital to the nation’s security, operating the Department’s repository of over 225 million unique identities that include fingerprint-based biometrics, face and iris holdings and provides biometric matching, storing and sharing services across the U.S. Government.

The second bill would formally authorize the IAP’s layered security strategy.

IAP deploys Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers to major last point of departure airports, as a means of advising airlines against boarding foreign nationals deemed inadmissible upon arrival to the United States.