Safer, Smarter, Faster: The Future of Travel Part 1

Welcome to “HSDF THE PODCAST,” a collection of policy discussions on government technology and homeland security brought to you by the Homeland Security and Defense Forum

 In this episode, We map how biometrics, mobile identity, and open architectures are reshaping travel from check-in to border crossing, and how partnerships prepare the system for the World Cup and beyond. CBP, TSA, and State share concrete steps toward faster, safer, and more predictable journeys.

 Featuring:

- Tim Ahrens, Artificial Intelligence & Automation Team Lead, Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, Department of State

- Matt Davies, Executive Director, Admissibility and Passenger Programs, Office of Field Operations, Customs and Border Protection 

- Balaji Subramaniam, Acting Chief Information Officer, Transportation Security Administration 

- Aaron Silverman, Strategy Leader, Deloitte

- Luke McCormack, Former CIO, Departments of Homeland Security and Justice (moderator)

 This discussion took place January 22nd, 2026, at HSDF’s Technology Innovation in Government Symposium 

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Transcript

Setting Up Q&A And Framing Digital Identity

SPEAKER_00 0:00

A decade. Uh and by the way, I should have mentioned, I think uh once again we will have uh ample time for uh questions uh in about I don't know about 20 minutes-ish or so. Uh we've got a few more questions up here that we want to plow through and some topics, but we'll give you all an opportunity to to get your questions. So gen those up.

Vision For A Fully Digital Travel Experience

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Let's talk about just a full digital identity experience, right? You know, and this is for for everyone on this panel, right? Because it it it it it kind of in some cases starts all at the State Department and works its way this way, sometimes it goes uh the other way. You know, at what point do we expect to see that experience be a full digital experience, right? I've got a digital identity, it's hot on my phone, right? I'm going through a touchless, seamless uh uh uh um uh experience e-gate, right? Which maybe you can explain a little bit more and from a kinetic standpoint what that actually looks like, and then back into the country as well, right? And it's just a full digital. And and you know, let's let's be uh fair here. Uh when you look at other parts of the world, that's really what you're experiencing, right? I mean, that's how they're rolling over there, good, bad, or indifferent. So um, well, let me start with you, uh, XD Davis, just from your perspective as to when would you expect to see, hey, we're we're just a full-on digital experience now, and and and we can we can take on as much of a percentage of that environment, trusted travel or not, or maybe, you know, I don't know, I want to put words in your mouth. What's your thought process on that?

CBP’s Biometric-First Strategy And Cloud Identity

SPEAKER_02 1:38

So I I think there's value in digital travel credentials, but I think a lot of the infrastructure that we're built on already in terms of our biometric holdings has really allowed us to really leapfrog the digital travel credential need in terms of something that's stored on a device uh that that's presented by a traveler. I think for us, because we have biometric identity verification capability uh through facial biometric. I mean it's sure it's it's in our cloud, right? We've we've got it. And so I think that that for us is is the bedrock of what we're trying to do to make sure that we know who the people are that are coming into this country and that all of the vetting and security apparatus that we have that goes beyond it is is really f found founded on knowing who those people are. U.S. citizens, working with the State Department to make sure we have the identities for, you know, people who have applied for passports, visas, and the biometrics that are collected overseas. Those are hugely important for us. But then expanding that collection uh in a digital way, which we're doing now for uh, you know, our ESTA travelers through the Visa Waiver program, being able to submit uh a photo and their fingerprints on a mobile application before they ever travel to the United States, so that some of these programs that we talked about that are right now only eligible for returning travelers because we already have their biometrics on file, we may be able to expand some of those in the future to additional populations. Uh where our goal really would be to get to a point where we have the biometrics

Expanding Mobile Biometric Collection And Land Borders

SPEAKER_02 3:00

for everyone before they come in. We're going to be expanding our biometric collections to the land borders this year. We we got some funding in the One Big Beautiful bill last year to expand a lot of what we've already done in the in the airports environment. Uh we don't have the capability today as it stands in vehicle lanes at the land border to take uh photos or fingerprints from people that would just shut down commerce. Um, but we're looking to implement some technology solutions that are gonna allow us to do that. One of those things is putting the power in the hands of the individuals. So something like mobile passport control that we've launched at our airports and been very successful over the last number of years. We're gonna be launching that next week for pedestrians first in Blaine, Buffalo, Eagle Pass, Texas, and in San Isidro. Uh and then later this year we're hoping to expand it to include vehicle lanes so that you as a traveler can take a photo of yourself, upload the information from your passport on your device, give us the license plate number, which is kind of the trigger as you pull into that vehicle lane so that we see everything about who's in the vehicle without forcing the officer to try to click uh, you know, a photo of everyone or to set up 17 different cameras from different angles to adjust for environmental conditions. A very simple solution that we already have the infrastructure for that will help us get to uh an increased um you know saturation of travelers who have biometrics and are using those as their identity management to come across the border.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Aaron Powell What's the State Department doing in this area? I mean, uh do you see a point where as I'm I'm looking for a visa or a passport, I'm just I just get a full digital version

Mobile Passport Control For Pedestrians And Vehicles

SPEAKER_00 4:28

of this? Or how's it gonna we back to Jason Bourne again here?

SPEAKER_03 4:32

I think I think as uh Matt was saying, you know, it's it's it's our focus, and and and I'm not a consular specialist. I'm I'm I I'm on the technology leadership side, but our focus is making the data that is necessary for all of our interagency partners to uh advance, whether it's biometric scanning, whether it is more of a digital experience, like making that data available in real time. That is that is a primary focus. Um obviously there's been a lot of work in modernizing uh you know our consular services, modernizing passports, the physical passport in terms of like the digital data that is that is available there. Um, you know, talking about visa processing, there's a lot of work happening there, certainly for some of the events coming up, um, talk about FIFA Pass and coordinating with um that organization to help those that have purchased FIFA tickets um through the FIFA organization to you know quickly kind of go through visa processing ahead of the World Cup. Um so that's some of the stuff that we're doing uh in terms of a full digital experience that we'll have to wait and see.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

And from a TSA perspective, you talked about the E-gates. I'm assuming that's a that's a whole digital experience there, uh, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

It can be broken down, right?

State Department’s Real-Time Data And Events Prep

SPEAKER_01 5:45

The the whole E-gate technology can be broken down into three parts. You know, the the the part that TSA is you know fully responsible for is making sure the security aspect of it, the governance aspect of it, whether it's vetting, whether it's matching and things like that, that are done uh through TSA, and we are taking ownership of it. But where we are you know partnering with the private and also doing it on our own is the edge devices, the edge devices that captures the uh the facial uh liveliness or the biometric data, and through either a registered traveler, trusted traveler program or a pre-check program that is promoted by airlines and airports that is expanding, or through seamless identity uh third-party device that

TSA E-Gates: Security, Edge Devices, And Privacy

SPEAKER_01 6:34

brings in the device and provides us those things. We write the specification. We say what security protocols and connectivity and all those things need to be there so that when they come in on on board, they already know what they are trying to play with. And we are also working with our privacy office and our chief counsel's office to make sure what we are passing them back is very, you know, uh very much in the area that meets all the policy requirements and other things so that they can do it. This has expanded, like you know, the the the rate at which we are collaborating right now is is enormous. So if you break that down into parts, uh TSA is doing still some of these reusable assets and working with CVP and State Department in making sure those passport identity or facial identity and matching algorithms are all met while we are collaborating with the private parties to integrate those e-gate for a seamless experience. Um I think that's that is where we

Why Partnerships Matter Ahead Of Mega Events

SPEAKER_01 7:35

want to drive, and you will see that more and more of that call.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, let's talk about partnerships. You can't do this alone, right? You all are scaling up in spades and just sort of transforming and modernizing these environments from tip to tip. Um, but there's all kinds of partners. There's a lot of folks in this room that are partnering with you or would like to partner with you. Uh I see I see Mr. Armstrong out there, and he knows this only too well about uh just partnering with the uh the the airlines, right, and the port authority, right? And the mayor of the port authority, right? You know, those sort of things and that whole environment. Uh let's just talk about partnerships and and how does one go about brokering those types of activities, particularly in the overlay of what's getting ready to happen with the uh the World Cup and with um uh the Olympics uh not too long behind that. Uh CVP, let's start with you.

CBP On Interagency Structure And Traveler Communication

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yeah, I think partnerships are crucial. And and and I didn't really do a good job at the outset of this about talking about the structure that we have for the the World Cup. You know, there's the White House Task Force, there's a number of working groups under the interagency coordination framework, and that's that's what the government is doing across government to make sure that we're all aligned. But but really the partnerships come down to operationalizing this at the end of the day and working with our airports, working with our airlines, working with our our our vendor partner communities to make sure that we're putting out the solutions that we need in advance of this travel. And and I think the thing is we've been planning this for years, and we're planning now years out from something like LA 28 because these are such important events. You can't really wait until the last minute to decide you want to change something. Um and I think a big part of that is also communication, right? Making sure that we're communicating appropriately, not just to our partners, but really to the travelers so that they know what to expect before they arrive. And and our partners are a big part of how we get that message out. You know, we can't do it as a government on our own. Uh we really leverage our partners, especially in the in the aviation sector, to make sure that when people are checking in or when they're buying their tickets, that they know that they're gonna need a visa or that they know they're gonna have to get an ESTA. Um, and so we're really focused on a lot of the communication aspect of things, uh, working with our partners. And it and it's a it's a it's a two-way street, right? Because I think when we talk about our airport partners, uh we invest a lot in the technology we're gonna use there, but we also go and ask the airports to invest in in the infrastructure and into the uh the space that CBP operates out of. And so uh there is a give and take, and we know we've got a lot of good partners out there that are willing to invest. It's it's on us to kind of make some of the business case for them so they see that there's return on investment. Um, but but some of it is is pretty obvious, and even if it's not about an efficiency, a lot of the times we're talking about trying to find efficiencies and reducing wait times, but sometimes a lot of what we're talking about recently is about the experience of the travelers coming through. It's not just about getting through quickly, it's about making sure that they have a positive experience when they're going through not just CBP, but the rest of that airport experience, whether it's TSA or whether it's while they're you know getting their their food at a restaurant or whatever. And so we're we're part of that ecosystem throughout the travel industry and we want to be good partners. We're we're constantly communicating, meeting with

TSA’s Layered Tech And Open Architecture

SPEAKER_02 10:45

industry uh associations and and trying to get our message out so that nothing that comes out as much as we can is a surprise to you in the industry.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Let me toss it over to TSA. I'm gonna ask you all to take a bite at this, but let me start with you, Balaji.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah. So I I the way the T TSA has looked at it is let's take a look at the the layers, the checkpoint security, right? So when you go in there, you you're providing your ID. Um, there's that layer of technology there. So we are looking at every layer, what partnership and what can we bring in as an innovation? For example, in the checkpoint technology, I you know, identity validation, whether it's credential authentication devices out there, uh, how are we partnering with the apples of the world and the Googles of the world? You know, how are we making sure their digital ID is there? How are we partnering with uh some of the providers that may be bringing in an MDoc? Like, you know, are we making sure that our MDoc that we are creating that follows some of these standards and making sure that it can be reused everywhere else? Then we start layering into hey, beyond that validation of identity, what are we doing with the baggage handling? You know, the CT machines, the AIT machines, how are we partnering with them to introduce? For example, the walkthrough mechal detectors are now going in connected. So are we then partnering with the airport, the the you know, and the network layers and other things? Can we get that back for real-time wait time type of uh uh understanding? How can we improve the efficiency that you goes back to your original question of how do we make sure that the lines are not building up and things like that? So we are partnering with there. We are actually partnering a lot with airport to say, hey, they're CCTVs, can we use theirs and start using their data feed instead of we putting our out there and having that real-time wait time be provided back to us so that we can make some real-time data decisions, right? Data-driven um, you know, resource allocations and things. And then we go beyond it, the explosive detection units, whether it is baggage handling unit, can we do the

Industry’s Role In Pre-Travel And Time Recovery

SPEAKER_01 12:57

efficiency? For example, that we have a we have an initiative called TSE connectivity, which is transportation security equipment connectivity, which basically starts with a FIFA-related activity, broken down into what can TSA do, what can our partners do, uh, and then what can we do as an open architecture, right? So we want to make sure it's available to the industry. For example, breaking down the CT machines into three parts the viewer part, the capturing part, and then the AI part, where there could be an algorithm associated with it. That gives an ability for us to invite people and bring them in. So all of these are combination of things that we are constantly doing beyond the component partnership, but also industry partnership and looking at the layers so that we bring in the innovation and sustainable innovation.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

A lot of different moving parts there. Uh Aaron, let me ask you uh just sort of your perspective on this partnership game, if you will. And I want to ask all of you uh for just a moment, you know, where where do you need some help in this area in regards to partnership, please? And I'm gonna I'm gonna save you for a for uh uh standards here next. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

Yeah, thanks, Luke. Um I you know, I think on uh as you said, no one organization can do this alone. And what's really been great, as you know, we've heard Balaji and uh Matt and Tim say this morning is there's a lot of really great work that the uh public sector is driving for that creates essentially the the backbone that ensures that security and standards and a regulatory environment are in place that then allows that experimentation innovation to really happen. And that's happening at all stages of of the travel journey. If you think about in the context of the mega the mega decade and the the magnitude that we're dealing with, uh you know, at at pre-travel, I touched on this earlier, but at pre-travel, um looking at ways that uh industry is uh almost traveling. Yeah. All right, I think I think we're back. Um but looking at ways the industry is um is engaging to help make the travel planning more effective, and that pulls on what you know what people are using to to obviously arrange travel, but also how the organizations are coming together to make the process of getting into a a travel event more seamless. And then at you know, during the travel, the the experience that my colleagues have talked about is really changing how fast that is. And and that, you know, of course, creates opportunities for upon arrivals and moving through a port of entry, you are now recovering time, which creates opportunities for economic um activity, for commercial partnerships, for leveraging things that are going to be associated with these events, like fan VIP, and other experiences that will make it a little bit easier to access. Um, you know, industry engaging on that, working closely with the public sector so that the traveler is now recouping the time that they've saved that that Matt was talking about. Um, and they're they're spending money, they're engaging with the different features and services that are offered within the airport environment and beyond. They are preparing for their experience, uh participating in some of these events. And you know, the goal is uh that these don't become point in time interventions, but that some of these things become the new normal as we kind of move through the decade.