Immigration Reform

Verifying the Status of Aliens Applying for Federal Benefits Gao ID: HRD-88-7 October 1, 1987

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the problems states encountered in verifying with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) the eligibility of alien applicants for various federal aid programs.

GAO found that: (1) four of the six states it reviewed estimated costs and savings of about $127,000 and $3.1 million, respectively, in unemployment compensation as a result of alien verification pilot projects; (2) in 1983, California realized over $19 million in savings before it abandoned its verification program as a result of a lawsuit; (3) New York realized about $52,000 in savings but included erroneous payments; (4) only Colorado verified the eligibility of alien applicants for the Medicaid, Food Stamp, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs, but state officials did not favor continuance of the pilot project because they believed that savings were small and few aliens sought benefits; (5) the six states it reviewed realized savings of about $579,000 in education assistance programs; (6) there was no alien verification for housing programs in the six states, since federal law and the courts prohibited denial of assistance to aliens; and (7) the federal and state governments do not collect data on alien program applicants and verification costs, making savings estimates difficult and unprojectable.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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