“Approximately eight months after the terrorist attacks of September 11,
on May 14, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Enhanced Border
Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002. …It represents the most
comprehensive immigration-related response to the continuing terrorist
threat America faces.
The Border Security law contains several provisions that are
critical to our ability to control our border. Among the most important
are:
A requirement that the immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
make interoperable all its internal databases, so that all information
about a particular alien may be accessed with a single search;
A requirement that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies
share data on aliens with the INS and the State Department; and
A requirement that all travel and entry documents, including visas,
issued to aliens by the United States be machine-readable and
tamper-resistant and include a standard biometric identifier.”