Browse: Departments   Dates   Agencies  

Docket ID: [Docket Number: DHS-2007-0040]

NOTICE: NOTICES

DOCUMENT ACTION: Notice of Privacy Act system of records.

SUBJECT CATEGORY: Privacy Act of 1974; U.S. Customs and Border Protection--Border Crossing Information, Systems of Records

DATES: Comments must be provided prior to August 25, 2008. The new system of records will be effective August 25, 2008.

DOCUMENT SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gives notice that it is establishing a distinct System of Records, Border Crossing Information (BCI). BCI will receive and maintain border crossing information on travelers who are admitted or paroled into the United States, this information includes: Certain biographical information; a photograph; certain itinerary information provided by air and sea carriers and any other forms of passenger transportation, including rail, which is or may subsequently be mandated, or is or may be provided on a voluntary basis; and the time and location of the border crossing. Previously, maintenance of this border crossing information was covered by the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS) ``system of records notice.'' See 66 FR 52984, dated October 18, 2001. As part of DHS's ongoing effort to increase transparency regarding the collection of information at the Department, as well as its efforts to specifically review the personally identifiable information maintained on the TECS information technology platform, DHS and CBP have identified different data sets that call for individual notice so as to provide appropriate routine uses, retention, and exemptions to the Privacy Act.

This system of records notice does not identify or create any new collection of information, rather, the Department is providing additional notice and transparency with respect to the handling of an existing collection of information, by separately noticing its collection as a distinct system of records.

SUMMARY: Privacy Act; Systems of Records,

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

The priority mission of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is to prevent terrorists and terrorists' weapons from entering the country while facilitating legitimate travel and trade. BCI will maintain border crossing information on travelers who are admitted or paroled into the United States, this information includes: Certain biographical information; a photograph (if available); certain itinerary information provided by air and sea carriers and any other forms of passenger transportation, including rail, which is or may subsequently be mandated, or is or may be provided on a voluntary basis; and the time and location of the border crossing. Previously, maintenance of this information was covered by the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS) ``system of records notice.'' See 66 FR 52984, dated October 18, 2001. As part of DHS's ongoing effort to increase transparency regarding the collection of information at the Department, as well as its efforts to specifically review the personally identifiable information maintained on the TECS information technology platform, DHS and CBP have identified different data sets that call for individual notices so as to provide appropriate routine uses, retention, and exemptions to the Privacy Act.

This system of records notice does not identify or create any new collection of information; rather, the Department is providing additional notice and transparency with respect to the handling of an existing collection of information, by separately noticing it as a distinct system of records.

CBP is the agency responsible for collecting and reviewing border crossing information from travelers entering and departing the United States. This is consistent with CBP's overall border security and enforcement missions. Upon arrival in the United States, all individuals crossing the border are subject to CBP processing. As part of this clearance process, each traveler entering the United States must first establish his or her identity, nationality, and admissibility to the satisfaction of a CBP officer. Additionally, CBP creates a record of the fact that the individual has been admitted or paroled into the United States at a particular time and port of entry. This record was previously covered by TECS system of records notice and will now be maintained in accordance with the privacy rules of this newly created Privacy Act System of Records Notice, BCI.

The border crossing information identified below may be collected in a number of different ways. For example, information may be collected: (1) From the travel documents presented by the individual at CBP Ports of Entry, such as foreign passports, where no advance notice of the border crossing has been provided to CBP; (2) from carriers who submit information in advance of travel, through the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) (See DHS/CBP005, August 23, 2007, 72 FR 48346); (3) from a DHS system that validates a Trusted Traveler Program card, I551 Permanent Resident Card, or immigration document; (4) from nonfederal governmental authorities that have issued valid travel documents approved by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, such as an Enhanced Driver's License (EDL); or (5) from another Federal Agency that has issued a valid travel document, such as Department of State Visa, Passport including Passport Card, or Border Crossing Card data. When a traveler is admitted or paroled into the U.S., a traveler's biographical information, photograph, where available, and crossing details (time and location) will be maintained in accordance with this BCI system of records. The information collected in BCI is authorized pursuant
[[Page 43458]]
to the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107173), Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 (Pub. L. 10771), the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Pub. L. 108458), the Immigration and Naturalization Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 215), and the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 66, 1433, 1454, 1485, 1624 and 2071) and much of the information can be found on routine travel documents that persons, passengers, and crewmembers currently provide to CBP when entering and departing the United States.

BCI shall contain border crossing information, as that term is explained above, for all individuals who are admitted or paroled into the United States, regardless of method or conveyance, and information for all individuals who depart the United States by air or sea and, in certain circumstances, by land. In certain circumstances in the land environment, CBP will collect the individual's biographic data, either directly from an approved travel document presented by the traveler and/or by verifying the traveler's border crossing information against electronic records supporting certain documents, such as EDLs, determined by the Secretary of DHS to denote citizenship and identity in conformance with IRTPA. For certain air and sea carriers and any other forms of passenger transportation, including rail, which are or may subsequently be mandated to provide APIS, or provide such information on a voluntary basis, CBP will confirm the individual's data against such information previously submitted by carriers.

For information collected from certain travel documents, for example a foreign or U.S. Passport, the CBP Officer will swipe the Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) to populate the border crossing record for an individual.

For records first collected through APIS, the BCI record will contain all the data of the APIS record (including complete name, date of birth, travel document type (e.g., passport), travel document number and travel document country of issuance) as well as information pertaining to the instance of the border crossing (for example, airport or place of embarkation, where the person began their travel to the United States; for persons destined for the U.S., the location where the person underwent CBP clearance). Such data will also be maintained in accordance with the APIS SORN, DHS/CBP005 August 23, 2007 72 FR 48349.

For records first collected through the NonFederal Entity Data System (NEDS), a new system of records being published concurrently in today's Federal Register, biographic data elements and photographs collected by the authority issuing the travel document will be transferred from NEDS, displayed in TECS, and then recorded in BCI as border crossing information at the time an individual is admitted or paroled into the United States. In the instance of data being transferred from NEDS, the biographical data and photograph will be first collected from the traveler by the issuing authority of the respective travel document and then provided to CBP, which will store a copy of that data in the system of records described by the NEDS SORN. At the time of arrival at the border, the travel document, either through a CBP Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Reader reading a unique RFID number from the RFID chip contained in the travel document, or through the CBP Machine Reader reading the MRZ of the travel document, will be used to retrieve the biographical data and photograph associated with the travel document from NEDS and populate a record in BCI, following admission/parole, to permit CBP to electronically verify identity and citizenship, to perform law enforcement queries to identify security risks to the United States and to expedite CBP processing upon arrival in and prior to departure from the United States. Upon admission/parole of the individual by CBP at the United States border or its functional equivalent, a record of the crossing will be created in BCI. Prior to admission/parole and during the process of inspecting the individual, information relating to identity and citizenship is compiled by the CBP in TECS, as part of the screening process to determine admissibility.

For records where travelerspecific information is accessed from a nonfederal authority's travel document database at the time of the traveler's crossing, the biographical data and photograph will be first collected from the traveler by the issuing authority of the respective travel document and the issuing authority will maintain its own travel document database; the data from such issuing authorities will not reside in NEDS. At the time of arrival at the border, the travel document, either through a CBP RFID Reader reading the RFID number from the RFID chip contained in the travel document, or through the CBP Machine Reader reading the MRZ of the travel document, will be used to access that traveler's biographic data and photograph, displaying it in TECS; upon admission to the United States, that data will be recorded in BCI. CBP also uses this information to perform law enforcement queries to identify security risks to the United States and to expedite CBP border processing.

For records where the information is provided by another component of DHS or another federal government authority, such as the State Department's Visa and Passport database or USCIS Permanent Resident Card data, the information will be transferred from the federal authority's or DHS's system of records, displayed in TECS, and then used to create a record in BCI at the time of admission or parole into the United States. Technically, in the case of information obtained from the Department of State and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), the information is maintained on the TECS IT Platform to improve the efficiency of the processing time at the border, but the information follows the State Department's or USCIS's system of records notices until the individual is admitted or paroled into the United States, at which point the information will by handled consistent with the BCI system of records notice, or that of any other DHS systems (such as TECS) in which it may be recorded.

BCI does not constitute a new collection of biographic information by DHS or CBP. DHS and CBP are providing additional notice and transparency with respect to the functionality of an existing operational process. The information storage functions of BCI were previously handled as a submodule within TECS and covered by the TECS ``system of records notice.'' See 66 FR 52984.

II. Privacy Act

The Privacy Act embodies fair information principles in a statutory framework governing the means by which the United States Government collects, maintains, uses and disseminates personally identifiable information. The Privacy Act applies to information that is maintained in a ``system of records.'' A ``system of records'' is a group of any records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual. In the Privacy Act, an individual is defined to encompass United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. DHS extends administrative Privacy Act protections to all persons where information is maintained in the same system on U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and nonimmigrant aliens. BCI involves the
[[Page 43459]]
collection of information that will be maintained in a system of records.

The Privacy Act requires each agency to publish in the Federal Register a description denoting the type and character of each system of records that the agency maintains, and the routine uses that apply to each system to make agency recordkeeping practices transparent, to notify individuals regarding the uses to which personally identifiable information is put, and to assist the individual to more easily find such files within the agency.

DHS is hereby publishing a description of the Border Crossing Information, system of records. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), a report concerning this record system has been sent to the Office of Management and Budget and to the Congress.
DHS/CBP007

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT For general questions please contact: Laurence E. Castelli (2025728790), Chief, Privacy Act Policy and Procedures Branch, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of International Trade, Regulations & Rulings, Mint Annex, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20229. For privacy issues contact: Hugo Teufel III (7032350780), Chief Privacy Officer, Privacy Office, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20528.