WASHINGTON – The federal government disclosed details yesterday of a border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave the United States, create a terrorism risk profile of each individual and retain that information for up to 40 years.
The details, released in a notice published yesterday in the Federal Register, open a new window on the government's broad and often controversial data-collection effort directed at American and foreign travelers implemented after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
While long known to scrutinize air travelers, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to apply new technology to perform similar checks on people who enter or leave the country “by automobile or on foot,” the notice said.
The department intends to use a program called the Automated Targeting System, originally designed to screen shipping cargo, to store and analyze such data.
“We have been doing risk assessments of cargo and passengers coming into and out of the U.S.,” DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen said. “We have the authority . . . to do it for passengers coming by land and sea.”
In practice, he said, the government has not conducted risk assessments on travelers at land crossings for logistical reasons.
“We gather, collect information that is needed to protect the borders,” Agen said. “We store the information we see as pertinent to keeping Americans safe.”
Civil libertarians expressed concern that risk profiling on such a scale would be intrusive and does not adequately protect citizens' privacy rights.
DHS officials said that by publishing the notice they were simply providing “expanded notice and transparency” about an existing program disclosed in October 2001, then called the Treasury Enforcement Communications System.
But others said Congress was unaware of the potential of the Automated Targeting System to assess non-aviation travelers.
“ATS started as a tool to prevent the entry of drugs with cargo into the U.S.,” said one aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “We are not aware of Congress specifically legislating to make this expansion possible.”
