Immigration Benefits
Tenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 Gao ID: GAO-04-189R October 17, 2003This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998 that authorized certain Haitian nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. Section 902(k) of the act requires the Comptroller General to report every 6 months on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. The reports are to contain a breakdown of the number of Haitians who applied and the number who were approved as asylum applicants, parolees, children without parents, orphaned children, or abandoned children; or as the eligible dependents of these applicants, including spouses, children, and unmarried sons or daughters. Reports are to be provided until all applications have been finally adjudicated. This is our tenth report.
Through September 30, 2003, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), had received a total of 37,851 HRIFA applications and had approved 11,067 of these applications. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had 1,094 applications filed and had approved 273 of them.
GAO-04-189R, Immigration Benefits: Tenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998
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October 17, 2003:
Congressional Committees:
Subject: Immigration Benefits: Tenth Report Required by the Haitian
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998:
This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitian Refugee
Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998[Footnote 1] that authorized
certain Haitian nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust their
status to legal permanent residence. Section 902(k) of the act requires
the Comptroller General to report every 6 months on the number of
Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their
status to legal permanent residence. The reports are to contain a
breakdown of the number of Haitians who applied and the number who were
approved as asylum applicants, parolees, children without parents,
orphaned children, or abandoned children; or as the eligible dependents
of these applicants, including spouses, children, and unmarried sons or
daughters. Reports are to be provided until all applications have been
finally adjudicated. This is our tenth report.[Footnote 2]
Results in Brief:
Through September 30, 2003, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services (BCIS), formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS), had received a total of 37,851 HRIFA applications and
had approved 11,067of these applications.[Footnote 3] The Executive
Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had 1,094 applications filed and
had approved 273 of them. Details on the categories of the applicants
and approvals are provided in this report.
Background:
Haitian applicants are to send their applications to BCIS's Nebraska
Service Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. A contractor at the service center
is responsible for processing the applications up to the point of their
adjudication by BCIS examiners. An application may be adjudicated at
the service center or in a BCIS district with jurisdiction over the
area where the alien applicant resides. Generally, applications that
are complete and evidentially sufficient can be adjudicated at the
service center, according to BCIS officials. If an interview is
required or other issues need to be resolved, the application is to be
forwarded to the appropriate BCIS district where the applicant can be
interviewed and the application adjudicated. Data on Haitian applicants
are to be entered in BCIS's Computer Linked Application Information
System (CLAIMS).
Haitian nationals who are eligible for HRIFA should file their
applications with EOIR rather than BCIS if they have (1) a proceeding
pending before the Immigration Court or the Board of Immigration
Appeals or (2) a pending motion to reopen or reconsider filed on or
before May 12, 1999. Thus, Haitian nationals who are in deportation,
exclusion, or removal proceedings, and whose cases have not been
administratively closed, are to file their HRIFA application with EOIR,
not BCIS.[Footnote 4] Data on Haitian applicants are to be entered in
EOIR's case-tracking system, the Automated Nationwide System for
Immigration Review (ANSIR).
The deadline for principal applicants filing an application for
adjustment of status under HRIFA was March 31, 2000. Dependents of
principal applicants have no application deadline.[Footnote 5]
HRIFA Applications Received and Approved by BCIS:
Through September 30, 2003, BCIS data showed that it had received
37,851 HRIFA applications at its Nebraska Service Center, all of which
had been entered into CLAIMS. The categories and numbers of these
applicants are shown in table 1. Through September 30, 2003, BCIS had
approved 11,067applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA.
Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and
Approved by BCIS, through September 30, 2003:
[See PDF for image]
Source: BCIS data.
[End of table]
HRIFA Applications Filed with and Approved by EOIR:
Through September 30, 2003, EOIR data from ANSIR showed that 1,094
HRIFA applications had been filed with EOIR, of which 273 had been
approved for adjustment of status. Table 2 provides information on the
categories and numbers of HRIFA applicants and approvals.
Table 2: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Filed with
and Approved by EOIR, through September 30, 2003:
[See PDF for image]
Source: EOIR data.
[End of table]
Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
Our objectives for this report were to determine (1) the number and
categories of applicants who filed applications with BCIS or EOIR and
(2) the number and categories of applicants whose applications were
approved by BCIS or EOIR. To attain these objectives, we relied on BCIS
and EOIR to provide us with data on applicants and the number of
approvals. We did not independently verify the data provided by BCIS or
EOIR. We conducted our work between September and October 2003, in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
We provided the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security with a
draft of this report for comment and received their informal comments
on October 15, 2003. BCIS and EOIR had no comments on the report.
We are sending copies of this letter to the Attorney General and the
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and will make copies
available to others upon request. The letter is also available on GAO's
home page at http://www.gao.gov. If you have any questions about this
report, please contact me at (202) 512-8777. The key contributor to
this assignment was Anthony L. Hill.
Laurie E. Ekstrand
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues:
Signed by Laurie E. Ekstrand:
(440254):
List of Congressional Committees:
The Honorable Ted Stevens
Chairman
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate:
The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch
Chairman
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate:
The Honorable C.W. Bill Young
Chairman
The Honorable David R. Obey
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives:
The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives:
FOOTNOTES
[1] P.L. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681-538.
[2] The previous reports were (1) U.S. General Accounting Office,
Immigration Benefits: Applications for Adjustment of Status Under the
Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO/GGD-99-92R
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 21, 1999); (2) Immigration Benefits: Second
Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of
1998, GAO/GGD-00-25R (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 19, 1999); (3) Immigration
Benefits: Third Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration
Fairness Act of 1998, GAO/GGD-00-122R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 14,
2000); (4) Immigration Benefits: Fourth Report Required by the Haitian
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-01-118R (Washington,
D.C.: Oct. 20, 2000); (5) Immigration Benefits: Fifth Report Required
by the Haitian Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-01-651R
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 20, 2001); (6) Immigration Benefits: Sixth
Report Required by the Haitian Immigration Fairness Act of 1998,
GAO-02-114R (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 22, 2001); (7) Immigration
Benefits: Seventh Report Required by the Haitian Immigration Fairness
Act of 1998, GAO-02-600R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 18, 2002); (8)
Immigration Benefits: Eighth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee
Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-03-240R (Washington, D.C.: Oct.
22, 2002); and (9) Immigration Benefits: Ninth Report Required by the
Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-03-681R
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 21, 2003).
[3] On March 1, 2003, INS was transferred from the Department of
Justice to the Department of Homeland Security. Within Homeland
Security, the adjudication of HRIFA benefits is the responsibility of
BCIS.
[4] EOIR was not transferred to Homeland Security and remains part of
the Department of Justice.
[5] The Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (title XI of P.L. 106-
553, as amended by title XV of P.L. 106-554) went into effect on
December 21, 2000. This act amended HRIFA to waive certain grounds of
inadmissibility for aliens applying for relief under HRIFA. Interim
regulations implementing these changes to HRIFA went into effect on May
31, 2001.
