Each year visitors with legal travel visas dont return to their country of origin. On tuesday Homeland Security officials discussed this at a house Homeland Security hearing. This is an hour 1 2. Will come to order. The subcommittees meeting today to study visa over stays and their impact on National Security. Conversations about the best way to secure the Southern Land border have been the principal focus for the last months. Today i want to transition to an equally important but often over looked aspect of our border and National Security. Visa over stays. Yesterday dhs released the official 2016 over stay numbers and this year they expanded the number of categories to include students and other nonimmigrant visa holders. I want to commend them for a more accurate picture. They calculated we have nearly 740,000 people over stay their visas at some point in fiscal year 2016. Even using the more generous numbers who eventually leave, we had 630,000 over stays at the end of last fiscal year. Over more time as more and more left, the number gets smaller and by january of this year we still had 544,000 over stays from fiscal 2016. Still an incredibly large number. To put that in context, we only apprehended 310,000 unique individuals crossing the land border illegally last year. Meaning we had twice as many over stays as people apprehended that land southern border. Its probably time to jettison the conventional reason with visa over stays are a much bigger problem than have been historically. So why does closing this gap matter . There are unidentified National Security and Public Safety risks in a population that large and they have historically been the primary means for terrorist entry into United States the United States. The 9 11 commissions put it this way for terrorists travel documents are as important asweapons end quote. Terrorists have abused the hospitality of the American People to conduct attacks here at home. An egyptian convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing worked illegally in the u. S. As a cab driver after his tourist visa expired. At least four of the hijackers were out of status or missed their visa. And the porous quote outer ring of our Border Security end quote. They passed through a combined total 628 times without arousing suspicion. And marine tried to conduct a Suicide Attack in 2012. He was here on a tourist visa and never left. I do not want the threat to get drowned out by the challenges we face on the southern border. We can chew gum and walk that same time. We have to elicit traffic flow and a growing problem of visa over stays. The department has to first identify those who over stay their visa in the first place. A mandate to electronically track has been in place for more than 20 years and a biometrically based system has been in place for 12 years. They track only marginal progress. There have been a series of pilot projects but no plan to ever implement was seriously considered by the department. Recent executive orders make it clear that finishing the exit system is clear. They will engage in a series of operational demonstrations with a planned rollout of a facial recognition system at some of the nations largest airport. Committed to a fully operational biometric exit system that nati nations highest volume exports. Putting a biometric exit cyst nm to place as the 9 11 commission noted quote an essential investment. Because without that, they can over stay their visas just as four of the 9 11 hijackers were able to do. And once we identify over stays, especially those who present National Security and Public Safety threats, we must pramptly remove those in the country illegally, others with we put those at risk unnecessarily. Officer of inspecter general casts doubt on isis ability to do just that. Multiple i prnp systems and lac training have hampered the work of our ageance. We have a back log of 1. 2 million visa over stays. In one instance an i. C. E. Agent spent 50 hours tracking down a lead that wasnt an over stay at all. In reality theyre still here. We have to do better. Adding a reliable exit system will allow them to focus their efforts on preventing terrorist attacks and only tracking down people still in the country. We recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee. I thank chairwoman mcsally for holding this on visa over stays. While the white house focuses its rhetoric on building a wall on the southern border, attention and resources should be paid to issues like over stays. I know first hand the security challenges we face on the border but to keep our focus mainly on wall sz a vulnerabili abilitabi enitself. Those who over stayed in fiscal 2016 is far greater than the 131,000 that were apprehended on the u. S. mexico border. Over the last few years dhs renewed i renewed. And i loong forward to hear about the eventual deployment of that system. Particularly along the mexican border. Unlike canada, mexico currently does not have the entry inf infrastructure necessary to share traveller information with the United States. I look forward to hearing from i. C. E. With limited resources we must first address those who must to us harm. Addressing over stays is no easy task but it is a necessary part of insuring meaningful Border Security. I thank the witnesses for joining us today. Gentleman yields back. Others are reminded that stalts may be submitted for the record. Mr. Michael dougherty previously served in dhs as an ombedsman. With the border and transportation security electorate. And service as legislative counsel on the staff of john kyle and on terrorism, technology and Homeland Security within the Senate Judiciary committee. Mr. Wagner formerly served as passenger programs with logical programs including the trusted travel program, Immigration Advisory Program and the fraujalant document analysis unit. And the assistant director for the National SecurityInvestigations Division within the Homeland Security investigations. He is responsible for Strategic Plan sdwning and the developmen execution. Mr. Settles over sees joint Terrorism Task force and the visa security program. Mr. John roth became the inspector gennel for the department of Homeland Security. He served as director of the office of criminal investigations and he served as section chief for the criminal divisions narcotic and dangerous drug section. The chair now recogsinizes mr. Dougherty to testify. Distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss work in progress that department of Homeland Security to address over stays. Some 50 million nonimmigrant visitors enter to study or to vacation here. The United States welcomes these visitors while recognizing that its imperative they departiculadepart the country when their period expires. Our ability to identify individuals is chief among them we need to determine whether they pose a threat and we need protect the integrity of our immigration system by removing those who were present in violation of law. The key way to insure that federal government has means of accurately determining unlawful stays in the United States is by a biometric system that will provide a high level of assurance when the visitor has left the country. It has been a federal objective for many years. It is a priority for this administration in his executive order of march 6th, he expedited the biometric entry tracking system for inscope travelers as recommended by the 9 11 commission. Yesterday they released the fiscal year entry exit over stay report. It contains new data when the 2015 report was issued. The 2016 report has been expanded to include foreign students and numerous other classes of nonimmigrants. Dhss ability results in improvement made by dhs in expanding its Data Collection capabilities. 98. 53 of in scope nonimmigrant visitors departed the United States on time and abided by the terms of their admission. All that is an impressive level of compliance, our data indicates nonimmigrant visitors over stayed. That means 439,788 individuals expengted to leave did not do so. These over stay numbers are a significant concern for secretary kelly and for the department as performed by our inspector general. Dhs is collaborating with the state department and doj to improve vetting standards and procedures so we can better determine the fraudulent stay. Secretary kelly is also committed to increasing the number of i. C. E. Agents to undertake enforcement efforts against law violators. We have a clear commitment by the executive order to prioritize and they acknowledge and appreciate the strong support it is continuously received from congress in favor of implementing sumpch a system. Ongoing work includes an aggressive effort to redesign data handle, to design next generation facial matching capabilities and to build a back end port tool connect with the travel industry and with our security partners. Ultimately the goal of our culaborative efforts is to accurately identify passengers and to deliver a seamless and secure travel experience. While implementation of a robust and effective biometric exit solution will take time and present significant operational challenges, dhs is advancing to a comprehensive exit system. Our strategy is to expand activities underway to include our land borders as well. Dhs will continue to build on the progress made in the 2016 over stay report to identify report and take appropriate action against those who violate the terms of their admissioning to the United States. Chairwoman mcsally, Ranking Member veilau and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify today and i look forward to your questions. The chair now recognizes mr. Wagner for five minutes. Ranking member vala, thank you for the opportunity to discuss u. S. Customs and Border Protection progress since last year and implementing a biometric exit system. This years report accounts for 96 of all air and sea nonimmigrant admissions from fiscal year 2016 at air and sea locs. Weve included foreign students, Exchange Visitors and certain worker class vacations. Last fiscal year approximately 54 million through the air and sea locations expected to depart. Dhs calculated a total over stay rate of 1. 47 . Of these about 628,000 remained in the u. S. Were 1. 25 at the end of the fiscal year. Thatn number is currently. 9 . Im happy to discuss that report further. Last year i testified before the subcommittee. I described some of the pilots that they have conducted over the year. I understand your frustration with the pace of this. I also recognize that congress has made a billion dollars av l available for biometric exit and funded a program having a real plan on how to implement. Were out of time and were out of excuses. So the good news is we have developed a feasible solution. Weve had a lot of discussion with private Sector Technology experts and stake holders. For this to be successful, we couldnt implement another stand alone stove piped process. We certainly couldnt rearrange in the near term how armirports are built. So the biggest factor in our strug tool find a solution is relying on that single Magic Technology that would accomplish our needs. Previous efforts didnt take a deem look at how our data systems function. We looked at how to make the inspension process a lot more efficient. We moved the biometrics of the traveller expected to be on a departing flight out of the dhs data base and into its own data base to encounter the person. We can skip reading the pass port first like a lot of the technology weve seen developed. We can go straight to collecting a biometric and collecting against a gallery. This makes the process a lot quick eer and the infrastructur footprint much more manageable. We used facial recognition on a flight in atlanta. We created a preconditioned gallery and a live photograph of the traveller boarding the plane. Weve processed about 28,000 travelers through this atlanta demonstration over the last 10 months ma s matching at high 90 travellers with a photograph available. Coupled with the latest technology and in the operational model of the airline and the airports and its easy for travellers to use. While facial recognition will be used, well continue to collect finger prints from foreign nationals. Both will be fused together in our systems and the fingerprint results can be attached to a Photo Associated with them. This is just a more efficient, convenient and user friendly way of traveller verification without losing any of the security benefits. Beginning this summer we roll out six to 10 biometric air demonstrations at airports. They will occur at select flights at each of the airports and using cameras or self forwarding gates. This will allow our stake holders to work with the new process and one that conformed to their own modernization plans. The land strategy will require of third Country Nationals, noncanadian, nonmexican citizens to self report. Theres very few making a final departure from the u. S. Only a few 00 a day, if that. We will advise travelers of these new requirements. In addition facial recognition tej technology will be at pedestrians at exit. Its expandible to other pedestrian locations. We have a feasible, efficient biometrics. Its about building out the back end services and infrastructure to support this on a National Base while simultaneously incorporating their own automation efforts. So thank you for the opportunity and look forward to your questions. Recognize mr. Settles. Chairwoman mcsally and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss how i. C. E. , Homeland Security investigates visa over stays and they have implemented on over stay enforcement. It focuses on identifying and prioritizing its enforcement efforts towards over stays still in the country. Otherwise known as incountry over stays. Who may pose a National Security or Public Safety threat. On a daily basis, hsi agents ingest thousands of atenpotenti over stay leads from adis, from hsi student Information System and other referrals. On four nationals who have over stayed their admission period or otherwise violated the terms of admission to the u. S. When leads are received by the ctceu team they go through an automeated and manual vetting process based on a prioritized risk based framework. They include all available information and instructions on how to adjudicate the leads are sent nation wide for further investigation by local in trained field agents. They reviewed approximately 1. 2 million unvalidated over stay leads. Numerous leads were closed due it subsequent departures from the United States, a change in status or pending immigration benefits. Those that did not meet the direct criteria, were referred for further action. Of the over stay leads remaining in hsis purview, 4,116 lead pack packages were sent for further investigation. From those leads, hsi special agents made 1,261 arrests, 97 indictments and 55 convictions. 1,08084 cases are still under investigation. 1,126 were closed as being in compliance. The remaining leads were cycled back and to Continuous Monitoring as new information is revealed. However, we, at hsi are committed to always doing better and advancing our capabiliti Capabilities Technology is developed and over stays allow. Id like to taep take a moment to highlight a recent pilot program. Push the borders out and our effort to improve data. First, our life cycle pilot is an effort to insure Continuous Monitoring. Hsi is tracking nonimmigrant visitors who file visa applications from it time they apply through the departure of the United States. This allows hrn s hsi the abili take action should derogatory anything be required. And we developed a Biometric Program called bit map to target high risk suspects in route to the u. S. We provide capability to tactically collect biometric data on persons of interest they encounter. If theyre identified as threats to National Security, we work with host nations to take appropriate Law Enforcement action. In addition bit map collects bring individuals at risk to our attention so we can stopped a mission to u. S. At future encounters. One example involves an Eastern European national encountered in south america. He was found to be a match to a no fly record and when confrontd and questioned, he identified himself as a foreign fighter. He was detained and his travel was stopped. This is what hsi is striving to do. Identify such individuals and prevent them from reaching the u. S. Third, hsi has been integral in improving ds systems and identify over stays through lead track andceives, we are advancing dhs information sharing and expediting over stay vetting. A number of ini