This bill creates the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program (BITMAP) inside the Department of Homeland Security. BITMAP is run through the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program would coordinate with the State Department, the Director of National Intelligence, foreign governments, and other federal agencies to support voluntary collection and sharing of biometric and biographic data from foreign nationals. BITMAP would provide training and equipment to partner countries, help those countries compare collected data against U.S. security and immigration databases (including IDENT, the Terrorist Screening Database, the FBI's NGI, and DoD ABIS), and incorporate collected data into appropriate U.S. government databases in compliance with the Privacy Act.
The bill requires agreements with any new partner country, sets goals and operational outlines for those agreements, and directs the Secretary to notify Congress within 60 days after an agreement takes effect. It requires an initial report 180 days after BITMAP is established and annual reports for five years, plus briefings to relevant congressional committees after each report. The Government Accountability Office must audit BITMAP starting six months after enactment and every three years. The section creating BITMAP would expire six years after enactment. The bill also requires that biometric or biographic data of U.S. citizens captured by BITMAP be removed from databases unless retained for specific law enforcement or intelligence purposes.
If your country becomes a BITMAP partner, local authorities may receive training and equipment to collect biometric (for example, fingerprints or facial images) and biographic information from people who may try to travel to the United States. Collected data may be checked against U.S. security and immigration databases. If you are a U.S. citizen and your biometric or biographic data is captured by BITMAP operations, the bill requires that the data be expunged from databases unless it is kept for a specific law enforcement or intelligence reason. The program includes reporting to Congress and audits to track how it operates.
No publicly available information on specific funding levels or authorized appropriations is included in the bill text. The bill does require DHS to report budget information related to BITMAP expenditures, including funding sources and anticipated expenditures. It also allows the Secretary to enter into reimbursable or non-reimbursable agreements with other agencies.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.