House committee advances McCaul’s bipartisan biometrics bill

A bill introduced by U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) to establish a biometric alert program to identify individuals that could threaten the United States received approval on July 24 from members of his committee.

“Simply put, this bill will help stop dangerous individuals who want to bring harm to the American people from entering the country,” Rep. McCaul said of the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program (BITMAP) Authorization Act of 2018. “I look forward to this bill advancing to the House floor for a vote and continuing the committee’s efforts to better secure the homeland.”

The bipartisan H.R. 6439, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), would fully authorize BITMAP to improve identification of national security threats. BITMAP, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations (ICE/HSI), was established in 2011 to permit partner-country law enforcement officers to collect and share biometric and biographic data used to identify potential bad actors who are trying to illegally enter the United States.

During the last few years, BITMAP has identified several hundred known or suspected terrorists in addition to criminals, drug smugglers, human traffickers, murderers, child predators, and dangerous gangs like MS-13, according to a statement released by Rep. McCaul’s office.

“As terror threats evolve over time, our adversaries become more agile, desperate to avoid detection and sneak into our country,” the congressman said. “One of the ways they try to come here is through the exploitation of illicit pathways in South and Central America.”

Rep. McCaul said the nation “must leverage our international partnerships and use the most advanced technology to our advantage” in identifying such threats.

“ICE’s BITMAP program shares valuable data from law enforcement officers in participating countries with our own law enforcement and intelligence agencies,” he said.

Rep. Keating noted that BITMAP “has proven extremely useful in increasing our capacity for information sharing and developing comprehensive strategies with our international partners to intercept known or suspected terrorists and criminals before they reach our borders.”

The program “is keeping Americans safer,” he added. “This is another way members of the committee are working together to thwart those who wish to do us all harm.”