Immigration Benefits
Ninth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 Gao ID: GAO-03-681R April 21, 2003This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitain Refugee Immigration Fairness Act 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.
Through March 31, 2003, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, had recieved a total of 37,295 Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act applications and had approved 9,555 of these applications. The Executive Office of Immigration Review had 665 applications filed and had approved 183 of them.
GAO-03-681R, Immigration Benefits: Ninth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998
This is the accessible text file for GAO report number GAO-03-681R
entitled 'Immigration Benefits: Ninth Report Required by the Haitian
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998' which was released on April
21, 2003.
This is the accessible text file for GAO report number GAO-03-681R
entitled …Immigration Benefits: Ninth Report Required by the Haitian
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998‘.
This text file was formatted by the U.S. General Accounting Office
(GAO) to be accessible to users with visual impairments, as part of a
longer term project to improve GAO products‘ accessibility. Every
attempt has been made to maintain the structural and data integrity of
the original printed product. Accessibility features, such as text
descriptions of tables, consecutively numbered footnotes placed at the
end of the file, and the text of agency comment letters, are provided
but may not exactly duplicate the presentation or format of the printed
version. The portable document format (PDF) file is an exact electronic
replica of the printed version. We welcome your feedback. Please E-mail
your comments regarding the contents or accessibility features of this
document to Webmaster@gao.gov.
United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
April 21, 2003:
The Honorable Ted Stevens
Chairman
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate:
The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch
Chairman
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate:
The Honorable C.W. Bill Young
Chairman
The Honorable David R. Obey
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives:
The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives:
Subject: Immigration Benefits: Ninth 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 ninth report.[Footnote 2]
Results in Brief:
Through March 31, 2003, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services (BCIS), formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS), had received a total of 37,295 HRIFA applications and
had approved 9,555 of these applications.[Footnote 3] The Executive
Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had 665 applications filed and had
approved 183 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 March 31, 2003, BCIS data showed that it had received
37,295 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 March 31, 2003, BCIS had
approved 9,555 applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA.
Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and
Approved by BCIS, through March 31, 2003:
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Asylum;
Number of applications in CLAIMS: 17,318; Number of applications
approved: 5,320.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Parolee;
Number of applications in CLAIMS: 8,898; Number of applications
approved: 2,271.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Child without
parents; Number of applications in CLAIMS: 1,228; Number of
applications approved: 92.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Orphaned
child; Number of applications in CLAIMS: 240; Number of applications
approved: 18.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Abandoned
child; Number of applications in CLAIMS: 480; Number of applications
approved: 15.
Principal or dependent: Dependent; Category of applicant: Spouse;
Number of applications in CLAIMS: 3,317; Number of applications
approved: 624.
Principal or dependent: Dependent; Category of applicant: Child; Number
of applications in CLAIMS: 5,485; Number of applications approved:
1,157.
Principal or dependent: Dependent; Category of applicant: Unmarried son
or daughter; Number of applications in CLAIMS: 329; Number of
applications approved: 58.
Principal or dependent: Total; Category of applicant: [Empty]; Number
of applications in CLAIMS: 37,295; Number of applications approved:
9,555.
Source: BCIS data.
[End of table]:
HRIFA Applications Filed with and Approved by EOIR:
Through March 31, 2003, EOIR data from ANSIR showed that 665 HRIFA
applications had been filed with EOIR, of which 183 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 March 31, 2003:
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Asylum;
Number of applications in ANSIR: 463; Number of applications approved:
104.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Parolee;
Number of applications in ANSIR: 106; Number of applications approved:
34.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Child without
parents; Number of applications in ANSIR: 34; Number of applications
approved: 19.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Orphaned;
Number of applications in ANSIR: 5; Number of applications approved: 4.
Principal or dependent: Principal; Category of applicant: Abandoned
child; Number of applications in ANSIR: 3; Number of applications
approved: 3.
Principal or dependent: Dependent; Category of applicant: Spouse;
Number of applications in ANSIR: 34; Number of applications approved:
11.
Principal or dependent: Dependent; Category of applicant: Child; Number
of applications in ANSIR: 15; Number of applications approved: 5.
Principal or dependent: Dependent; Category of applicant: Unmarried son
or daughter; Number of applications in ANSIR: 5; Number of applications
approved: 3.
Principal or dependent: Total; Category of applicant: [Empty]; Number
of applications in ANSIR: 665; Number of applications approved: 183.
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 March and April 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 April 16, 2003. BCIS and EOIR had no comments on the report.
We are providing copies of this report to the Attorney General and the
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and will make copies
available to others upon request. If you have any questions about this
report, please contact me at (202) 512-8777. The key contributor to
this assignment was Jay Jennings.
Laurie E. Ekstrand
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues:
Signed by Laurie E. Ekstrand
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).
[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.
GAO‘s Mission:
The General Accounting Office, the audit, evaluation and investigative
arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting its
constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and
accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO
examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and
policies; and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance
to help Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding
decisions. GAO‘s commitment to good government is reflected in its core
values of accountability, integrity, and reliability.
:
Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony:
The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no
cost is through the Internet. GAO‘s Web site (www.gao.gov) contains
abstracts and full-text files of current reports and testimony and an
expanding archive of older products. The Web site features a search
engine to help you locate documents using key words and phrases. You
can print these documents in their entirety, including charts and other
graphics.
Each day, GAO issues a list of newly released reports, testimony, and
correspondence. GAO posts this list, known as ’Today‘s Reports,“ on its
Web site daily. The list contains links to the full-text document
files. To have GAO e-mail this list to you every afternoon, go to
www.gao.gov and select ’Subscribe to daily E-mail alert for newly
released products“ under the GAO Reports heading.
:
Order by Mail or Phone:
The first copy of each printed report is free. Additional copies are $2
each. A check or money order should be made out to the Superintendent
of Documents. GAO also accepts VISA and Mastercard. Orders for 100 or
more copies mailed to a single address are discounted 25 percent.
Orders should be sent to:
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street NW, Room LM
Washington, D.C. 20548:
To order by Phone: Voice: (202) 512-6000
TDD: (202) 512-2537
Fax: (202) 512-6061
:
To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs:
Contact:
Web site: www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm
E-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov
Automated answering system: (800) 424-5454 or (202) 512-7470
:
Public Affairs:
Jeff Nelligan, managing director, NelliganJ@gao.gov (202) 512-4800
U.S. General Accounting Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149
Washington, D.C. 20548:
