House lawmakers on Tuesday evening passed a bipartisan bill that would allow the government to provide training and biometric technology to allied countries so that suspected terrorists, gang members, and other criminals traveling to the U.S. through areas known for human smuggling can be detected and arrested on foreign soil prior to illegally entering America.
House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said his Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program Authorization Act of 2018 would allow the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations office to provide training and equipment to friendly nations.
The Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program, known as BITMAP, was created in 2011 and has identified terrorists, criminals, drug smugglers, human traffickers, murderers, child predators, and gang members while they were traveling to the U.S.
“We’ve stopped hundreds of known or suspected terrorists from trying to enter the United States under this tried and true program,” McCaul said in a House speech Tuesday arguing in support of the program’s expansion.
Partnering with countries that are hot spots for underground trafficking systems, foreign agencies will be able to collect biometric and biographic data on people passing through, then share that information with the U.S., and arrest anyone who is flagged.
Those screened would have his or her name run against the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database and Next Generation Identification Database; the Department of Defense’s Automated Biometric Identification System; the DHS Automated Biometric Identification System, and others the DHS secretary deems applicable.
Democratic sponsor Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts said the classified program has proven successful over the past seven years and should be expanded.
“The BITMAP program 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. It is keeping Americans safer,” Keating said in a statement.
The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, opposed the bill in a House speech Tuesday. McCaul responded and said he thought some opposed to it might not like it only because ICE was mentioned in it.
McCaul did not share during a House speech Tuesday how many people he expects to be flagged as a result of any such change to BITMAP.
ICE would be required to inform the House Homeland Security Committee and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee within 60 days of a country agreeing to partner. The State Secretary would coordinate with DHS in deciding which agencies in a country to work with.
The bill, which passed 272-119, also includes language in support of ICE in the midst of recent calls by some Democratic lawmakers to abolish the agency.
