The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a continuing requirement for the Integrated Travel Initiative (ITI).

This requirement was also formerly known as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) and the Land Border Integration (LBI) solutions. This is the follow-on contract to the current Land Border Integration (LBI) Task Order and includes all legacy LBI solutions within its broadened scope.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requires all citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda to have a passport or other accepted document that establishes the bearer’s identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States from within the Western Hemisphere.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Information and Technology (OIT) is responsible for planning, designing, developing, testing, implementing, and maintaining computer applications and information technology systems that support the mission of CBP and DHS.  The Passenger Systems Program Directorate (PSPD) within OIT is responsible for systems that support the processing of travelers and vehicles at the U.S. land, air, and sea POEs.  Over the past seven years, PSPD has developed, deployed, and maintained a variety of technical solutions to meet the requirements of the WHTI and LBI Programs.

The WHTI Program deployed integrated license plate and RFID reader technologies to nearly 500 inbound vehicular lanes on both the northern and southern U.S. borders.  These systems automatically read license plates and RFID-enabled travel documents, package the data and send to CBP back-end systems.  The combination of RFID-enabled cards, automated data capture, processing, and display systems have enabled CBP to transform land border POE operations.  These systems provide both a facilitation benefit and enhanced security screening for travelers entering the US.

The ability to obtain traveler information prior to their arrival at the inspection booth enables the display of traveler and vehicle query results to the CBP officer in real-time while minimizing the impact on traffic flow through the port.  The timely display of traveler and vehicle data enables the CBP Officer to verify the identity and citizenship of each traveler and to review in advance any derogatory results of automated queries associated with either the traveler or the vehicle license plate.

WHTI technologies, systems, and processes were leveraged in the expanded Land Border Integration Program in application to other CBP operational venues.  These include outbound vehicle lanes, pedestrian inbound, and Border Patrol checkpoints.  They support both entry and exit traveler/vehicle processing and enforcement operations.  Besides WHTI inbound vehicle fixed LPR/RFID systems, WHTI and LBI introduced other capabilities including:

• Mobile LPR / document reading handheld devices which connect wirelessly to the CBP network and allow vehicle and traveler screening capability in the absence of supporting facility / fixed IT infrastructure
• Pedestrian kiosks with MRZ/RFID document read capability integrated with the enhanced US Pedestrian primary application, allowing travelers to read their own documents while waiting in line, again providing both facilitation and a security benefits
• Remote pedestrian kiosk variant deployed to a remote POE site also provides a real-time audio/video link and biometric fingerprint capture functionality, enabling officers located at a regional center to remotely process travelers using the kiosk
• Tactical LPR systems deployed to Border Patrol checkpoints on public roadways, which will not otherwise support the deployment of fixed / permanent LPR systems
• Overhead gantry-mounted LPR systems with integrated signage
• Fingerprint biometric collection technology in both attended and unattended configurations
• Enhanced directional signage at land and airports of entry to facilitate traveler processing experience
• Remote O&M monitoring of deployed solutions to facilitate health assessment, performance assessment, fault detection and remediation, configuration management, and remote system updates
• The current contract for these services was awarded via the DHS EAGLE acquisition contract.

The WHTI travel initiative was implemented in two phases. The first phase was for air travel, and the second was for land/sea travel.

For Air Travel: As of January 23, 2007, U.S. citizens and citizens of Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda traveling by air between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda began being required to present a valid passport to enter (or re-enter) the U.S.

For Land/Sea Travel: As early as January 1, 2008, U.S. citizens traveling between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda by land or sea (including ferries), could be required to present a valid U.S. passport or other documents as determined by the Department of Homeland Security in a forthcoming separate rule.

In 2015-2016 the title for the recompete was changed to the Integrated Travel Initiative (ITI) Program. To efficiently and effectively execute this mission, the CBP ITI Program requires technical, engineering, operational, and management support to plan, design, fabricate, procure, integrate, construct, install, test, train, document, and maintain its border enforcement and security infrastructure at US Land, Sea and Air Ports of Entry (POE) and Checkpoints.

CBP envisions awarding a performance-based contract to a contractor that can:

• Provide a seamless transition from the incumbent LBI contractor and start-up of operations, especially operations and maintenance (O&M) of legacy LBI systems, which includes license plate (LP) readers (fixed, gantry mounted, and tactical), kiosks, handheld devices (document and/or LP reader), signage, biometric units, radio frequency identification (RFID) readers and other ancillary devices deployed to the border crossings
• Provide engineering solutions and system integration capabilities
• Define and implement testing requirements
• Deploy existing LBI land border system solutions (examples: LPR, RFID, kiosks, signage, biometric units) and new technology solutions to address an increasingly complex and changing set of CBP-specific Land, Air, and Sea POE and Border Patrol Checkpoint requirements.
• Develop alternative solutions for Land, Air, and Sea POE and Border Patrol Checkpoint operations to reduce life cycle cost and improve overall performance
• Standardize technology that can be deployed interchangeably across Land, Air, Sea POE, and Border Patrol Checkpoint applications to minimize incompatibilities across systems and maximize portability and interoperability with both existing and future systems through established government and industry standards
• Pilot and advance an “open systems” environment using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products
• Continue to support and enhance the Government LBI Dashboard that provides an automated method of monitoring the configuration and state of health of all deployed equipment so corrective action can be remotely identified and implemented, wherever possible, depending upon the severity of the problem
• Ensure all solutions, particularly biometrics, ePassport readers, RFID, and signage is compliant with international standards
• Implement and maintain existing WHTI/LBI solutions, previously described
• Enhance or re-engineer WHTI/LBI solutions to improve performance and lower operational costs
• Develop, deploy and maintain new solutions and technologies such as multi-modal biometrics, traveler wait time estimation, and mobile device applications (CBP and public-facing) which will support entry and exit processing of travelers and vehicles at CBP air, land, and sea POEs nationwide, and at remote locations
  • To the maximum extent possible, standardize and leverage technology / software solutions for use across all airport, seaport, and land border POE environments to minimize incompatibilities across systems, reduce development time/cost, and maximize interoperability with future systems
  • Utilize established government and industry standards that form the basis of an “open systems” environment using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products
  • There should be a concerted effort to avoid the use of proprietary elements in any solution.  If this is not possible, it should be confined to well-defined elements to allow the government or others to operate and maintain deployed technology solutions without the need for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) support
  • Employ modular, component-based system elements with well-defined and published interfaces that would facilitate the integration of technology into a larger, more comprehensive operational solution and allow Government acquisition of individual components from a variety of commercial sources
  • Provide program management support for Systems Engineering Life Cycle (SELC) including Agile methodologies
  • Provide preventative and unscheduled maintenance of deployed solutions including the means to remotely monitor system / component health, perform fault detection and remediation, configuration management, and push system updates via the CBP network
  • Operate and maintain the Government LPR/RFID Test Lane Facility in Stafford, VA
• Performance objectives for each of the technology elements are:
  • General:
    • Operate 24X7 in outdoor environmental conditions typical of the U.S. northern and southwest land border POEs and within protected CBP facilities at land, air, and sea POEs
    • Sustain system availability in excess of 99.5%, independent of commercial power and CBP network availability
    • Minimize O&M costs and impact to CBP operations, such as officer resource requirements and traveler wait times
  • License Plate Reader:
    • Perform accurate vehicle (POV and commercial) detection in a variety of configurations (e.g., roadside, overhead), capturing front and rear vehicle images that contain the vehicle license plate, or multiple plates if present, at speeds up to 60 MPH
    • Identify license plates and derive state/province of origin and license plate alpha-numeric for all license plates, to include those issued by Mexico, Canada, and United States at accuracy rates exceeding 95%
    • Package LPR and RFID data for each vehicle / passengers within 500msec and deliver to the CBP network
  • Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Readers):
    • Perform accurate and consistent reads of the ISO 18000-6c GEN2 RFID chips including Tag Identifier (TID) from RFID-enabled cards within a vehicle / lane and within other CBP operational facilities at rates exceeding 90%, when presented by travelers to the lane antenna or to a kiosk reader
    • Prevent or reject the reading of RFID cards within vehicles in adjacent lanes or in the queue behind the subject vehicle or from adjacent kiosks
  • Biometrics:
    • Implement fingerprint, facial, and/or iris biometrics to identify and/or verify  travelers entering or leaving the country as pedestrians, in vehicles, and as commercial air, train, and sea passengers
    • Minimize direct traveler interaction or physical contact with the system
    • Measure and optimize quality of captured biometrics through user aides and feedback while minimizing the potential for spoofing
    • Follow biometrics standards as described in ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011 to include (NIEM-conformant XML encodings): Type 14 records for fingerprints, Type 10 records for face, and Type 17 records for iris