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GCN Home > 10/09/06 issue

Nexus could expedite PASS card development

By Kerri Hostetler, GCN Staff

While the Homeland Security and the State departments argue over smart-card technologies for the People Access Security Service card — and Congress raises its own doubts — officials might be overlooking a solution in the form of the Nexus highway program.

“Nexus is a program we’re looking at as we develop the PASS card. Nexus could be the model,” said John Wagner, Customs and Border Protection Directorate’s director of traveler security and facilitation. CBP administers the Nexus program with the Canadian government.

Nexus is a binational trusted traveler program that expedites U.S.-Canada border crossings. The Nexus card lets low-risk travelers cross quickly, while CBP officers focus on high-risk travelers.

The idea for a PASS card — which frequent border-crossers could use instead of a passport — arose out of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which originally had set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2008.

It will require individuals entering the U.S. to carry identification that verifies citizenship and identity. The PASS card would do both.

The DHS spending bill extended the PASS card deadline to June 2009.

Some members of Congress have criticized the PASS card for not being a binational program.

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has been urging DHS and State since April 2005 to use Nexus as a model.

“Nexus is a good model for how the U.S. and Canada should be working together to develop the PASS card. Unfortunately, DHS and State are pursuing the development of the PASS card and leaving Canada completely out of the conversation,” said John Santore, a Slaughter spokesman.

As part of the Nexus program, the U.S. and Canada share an integrated information system called the Global Enrollment System. It is hosted on an internal Customs and Border Protection server.

The system is updated every 24 hours, so information stays current on each traveler, said Nexus’ Wagner.

State and DHS have disagreed over the type of radio frequency identification technology the PASS card will use.

DHS has touted ultrahigh-frequency, or vicinity RFID, while State advocates high-frequency short-range, or proximity devices.

The Nexus program uses vicinity RFID. Travelers wave the card in front of a reader that picks up the frequency and transmits traveler information as a file number to border patrol officers in a booth.

On-screen only

Wagner said no personal information is exchanged across the frequency; it only appears on the border officer’s monitor.

More news on related topics: Authentication / Identity Management, Homeland Security, IT Management



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