The Chronicle of Higher Education
May 16, 2003, Friday

The federal government has announced that its database to track foreign students will soon contribute information to a comprehensive new system that will monitor all travel by immigrants into and out of the United States.

Tom Ridge, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced last month the creation of the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indication Technology System, or US Visit.

The system will collect information from multiple government agencies and use biometric data such as fingerprints, facial photographs, and iris scans.

The department intends to have the first phase of the monitoring system, including the biometric-measurement devices, in place at international airports and seaports by the end of this year.

The new system will not replace the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or Sevis, which tracks foreign students, although data collected by Sevis will be used by US Visit, says Christopher S. Bentley, a spokesman for the department's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

US Visit will eventually replace another tracking database, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or Nseers. It requires men from 25 mostly Arab and Muslim countries to register with the U.S. government when they enter or leave the country and periodically while they are in the United States.