Information Technology and Homeland Security: How "Virtual" Can Smart Borders Get?	Events > Event Announcement

Information technology increasingly plays a role in U.S. homeland security, as the government develops and uses systems to track the entry and exit of individuals, screen and pre-clear people prior to their arrival in U.S. territory, and discern low-risk from high-risk traffic through advanced submission of electronic data. Department of Homeland Security officials more and more often speak of “virtual borders” existing in cyberspace beyond the physical borders of the United States.

Speakers will discuss some of the opportunities these new technologies offer, the obstacles they present, including concerns about accuracy, privacy, and physical infrastructure, and the implications for immigration policy. These challenges will be highlighted through examination of:

• the new entry-exit system (US-VISIT),
• airline submission of passenger name record (PNR) data, and
• Visa Waiver Program requirements for machine-readable passports containing biometric data.

Speaker:
Rey Koslowski, Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and
Associate Professor, Rutgers University

Commentators:
Joan Friedland, Immigration Policy Attorney, National Immigration Law Center

Ari Schwartz, Associate Director, Center for Democracy and Technology

Moderator:
Deborah Meyers, MPI Policy Analyst

When:
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Where:
MPI Conference Room
1400 16th Street, NW, Suite 300

RSVP:
Acceptances only to Fancy Sinantha at fsinantha@migrationpolicy.org or
202-266-1929.

The Migration Policy Institute is a nonpartisan think tank devoted to the study of the movement of people worldwide.

Please click here for directions to MPI.

For more information on U.S. borders, please read MPI's Insight publication by Deborah Meyers, Does Smarter Lead to Safer? An Assessment of the Border Accords with Canada and Mexico.