Immigration and Naturalization Service's Survey of Illegal Aliens and Alien Documentation, Identification and Telecommunication System

A review was made of the Immigration Naturalization Service's contract for a residential survey of illegal aliens and its development of an Alien Documentation, Identification, and Telecommunications System. The survey of illegal aliens was a failure and the portion of blame that should be borne by the Service is difficult to gauge. Under the best of circumstances, an undertaking of this nature would be difficult. But the Service's lack of experience made it more so. The Service's project officer acknowledged that the request for proposals was not adequately thought out and the Service really did not know what it wanted. The Service's alien documentation system will be of little help in stopping the influx of illegal aliens. The system is a long way from completion and additional unresolved hardware development problems exist. The alien identification card was designed to be more fraud-resistent than previous cards as its physical characteristics make it difficult to tamper with and its authenticity can be machine validated. However, the use of machines to verify a substantial number of cards would slow traffic flow, an unacceptable condition. In addition, the Service has not demonstrated that the automated verification portion of the system will be cost effective. It appears that minimal benefits will be obtained from the millions of dollars the Federal Government will be required to invest to produce such equipment. Further development of the automated verification portion of the system should cease.