This bill establishes the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program, or BITMAP, within the Department of Homeland Security to identify security and terrorism threats before they reach the U.S. border. Through BITMAP, the department would work with foreign governments and other federal agencies to collect biometric and biographic data from foreign nationals and compare it against U.S. national security databases, including FBI terrorism watchlists and immigration records. The department would also provide training and equipment to partner countries to help them collect and analyze this identification data to prevent high-risk individuals from attempting to enter the United States illegally. The bill requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to notify Congress within 60 days of any new BITMAP agreements with foreign countries and to submit detailed annual reports for five years on program goals, partner countries, personnel and budget information, and the number of individuals enrolled. The program will automatically expire six years after enactment, though the bill includes protections requiring that any biometric data from U.S. citizens be deleted from all databases unless needed for specific law enforcement purposes.
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