Biometrics

Coast Guard Magazine, Sept-Oct, 2007 by Mario Teixeira

The Basics of Biometrics

The term biometrics refers to the identification of a person based on physical or behavioral characteristics. One of the best known and most highly commercialized biometric capabilities is the fingerprint. Fingerprints are the preferred method because of the relative ease of capturing them. For years, fingerprints were taken on ink cards and matching was manually done by individual fingerprint experts. Technology has given us the ability to search thousands of fingerprints per minute and find a match with a high degree of certainty. Each fingerprint has many individual data points, known as minutiae.

When a digital fingerprint image is taken, a complex mathematical algorithm is used to systematically extract these minutiae points and create a biometric signature. Then a search algorithm is used to compare sets of these biometric signatures to find a match.

Initial Project Challenges

From the beginning it was known and understood that the project would depend on the strength of multi-agency partnerships. In order to identify undocumented migrants, access to an existing fingerprint database would be required.

The program with the largest U.S. fingerprint database is the Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT program. US-VISIT provides biometric identity services to border control agencies within DHS, throughout the federal government, and most recently, to state and local law enforcement.

The premise of US-VISIT is to enhance the security of U.S. citizens and visitors, facilitate legitimate travel and trade, ensure the integrity of the U.S. immigration system and protect the privacy of visitors.

One of the measures to ensure that these premises are fulfilled is requiring foreign visitors to enroll in US-VISIT. Enrollment into US-VISIT requires that foreign visitors have their index fingerprints scanned and a digital photograph taken to validate their travel documents at ports of entry.

The actual database maintained by US-VISIT is known as the IDENT database, it is largely made up by the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service database.

Ideally, units would scan fingerprints and then send the images to an automated IDENT database that would search through a broadband internet connection and wait for a response for a match. However, patrol boats operating in the Mona Passage would be far from a broadband connection and, at the time, had no internet capability. This presented an initial project challenge: in order to be able to search and make entries to a database, access to the database is required--something that these patrol boats did not have.

In order to overcome such a challenge, US-VISIT agreed to allow patrol boats to carry smaller subsets of the database onboard during migrant interdiction mission's in the Mona Passage.

"This was a significant step forward and a considerable leap of trust from the interagency," said Vice Adm. Brian Peterman, Atlantic Area Commander. "We will handle this information on much the same lines as we do classified information, ensuring personal accountability for the security of sensitive personal information, criminal records and watch lists."

These measures were eventually included in the project's standard operating procedures. Laptops are locked in a secure location at all times when not in use, and property forms are required to be signed every time the system is transferred from one individual to another.

Another challenge posed by the project was whether the Coast Guard has the authority to take fingerprints of those migrants encountered in the Mona Passage. Detaining migrants for the purpose of collecting fingerprints would likely constitute a seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

The Coast Guard Operations Law Group conducted a study to determine whether the Coast Guard has the authority to conduct such actions. The conclusion of the study was that taking the fingerprints of someone attempting to enter the U.S. illegally constituted a routine border search. A routine border search does not require a warrant and commissioned, warrant and petty officers of the Coast Guard are considered officers of the customs, therefore authorized to conduct border searches. Furthermore, a bilateral agreement between the governments of the U.S. and the Dominican Republic in 2003 authorized the search of persons aboard suspect vessels of Dominican origin or registry found seaward of any State's territorial seas. This authorized routine border searches, including the collection of fingerprints, of people found aboard Dominican vessels suspected of attempting to enter Puerto Rico illegally, even outside of U.S. territorial waters.

Prior to deploying the proof of concept, the Coast Guard collaborated with Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Justice and the Department of State at the national and regional levels through the Caribbean Border Interagency Group in San Juan. The purpose of the CBIG was to develop and publish an Interagency standard operating procedure for the investigation and prosecution of migrant interdiction events in the Mona Passage. The CBIG Migrant Smuggling Prosecution SOP facilitates the delivery of meaningful and timely consequences when an at-sea biometrics hit reveals the presence of a serious felon.