Verification Review of 

USCIS’ Progress in 

Implementing OIG 

Recommendations for 

SAVE to Accurately 

Determine Immigration 

Status of Individuals 

Ordered Deported 

January 18, 2017

OIG-17-23-VR 
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL 

Department of Homeland Security 

Washington, DC 20528 / www.oig.dhs.gov 

January 18, 2017 

MEMORANDUM FOR: 

FROM: 

The Honorable Leon Rodriguez 

Director 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 

John Roth ~~\lo~ Inspector General 

SUBJECT: Verification Review ofUSCIS' Progress in 

Implementing OIG Recommendations for SAVE to 

Accurately Determine Immigration Status of 

Individuals Ordered Deported 

We conducted a verification review to assess the United States 

Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) progress in implementing 

recommendations from our report, Improvements Needed for the SAVE 

(Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program) to Accurately 

Determine Immigration Status ofIndividuals Ordered Deported (OIG-13­

11, December 2012). We periodically conduct verification reviews to 

evaluate agency progress on selected audit recommendations, including 

whether corrective actions achieve the intended results. 

In our 2012 report, we discussed the results of our review of Systematic 

Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), a Web-based system that uses 

the Verification Information System (VIS) to provide almost 

instantaneous responses to immigrant status inquiries. In summary, we 

reported that SAVE sometimes provided outdated and erroneous 

information about an individual's immigration status to assist Federal, 

state, and local agencies that grant benefits and licenses. Through 

statistical sampling, we found that nearly one out of eight times, SAVE 

erroneously verified that an individual had lawful immigration status 

although the individual had been ordered deported from the United 

States and was no longer entitled to many government benefits. We 

determined that the Central Index System, which SAVE accessed to 

validate an individual's immigration status, was generally not updated 

when the Immigration Court issued a final decision to deport, remove, or 

exclude an individual. Instead, immigration status codes in the Central 

Index System were generally updated after an individual had physically 

left the country, a process that may take years. 
 OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

 Department of Homeland Security 

USCIS’ progress in implementing our report recommendations. USCIS 

did not provide formal management comments to this verification review 

report. 

Verification Review Results 

Implementation of Recommendation 1 

We recommended that USCIS determine what data interfaces are 

necessary for SAVE to reflect the timely status of individuals who 

have lost status as a result of a final removal order or expiration of 

time permitted to file an appeal. In response, USCIS undertook a 

series of meetings in early 2012 with its counterparts at U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of 

Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) to identify 

the applicable interfaces. USCIS considered several options, 

including ICE’s tracking system for deportable aliens, and EOIR’s 

Immigration Review Information Exchange System (IRIES). 

Ultimately, USCIS selected IRIES as the system to interface with 

SAVE because it could provide, immediately and in real time, the 

status information on each individual subject to final removal. In 

contrast, ICE’s system was unable to process deportable aliens’ data 

as quickly as IRIES and could not provide USCIS with up-to-date 

information. We closed this recommendation in fiscal year 2013. Our 

verification review confirmed that all corrective actions have been 

completed. 

Implementation of Recommendation 2 

We recommended that USCIS develop an automated interface that would 

result in SAVE accurately reflecting the immigration status of individuals 

ordered deported. In June 2016, USCIS reported that the interface 

between SAVE and IRIES had been successfully tested and deployment 

had begun. 

USCIS experienced initial delays in accomplishing the data interface. 

Specifically, in October 2013, 10 months after issuance of our report, 

USCIS reported that it had conducted analyses of the interface between 

SAVE and IRIES. However, early analysis of the interface test results 

showed unusually slow response times. Since 2013, USCIS (which is 

responsible for building the SAVE interface) conducted four additional 

www.oig.dhs.gov 2 OIG-17-23-VR 
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 Department of Homeland Security 

performance tests with IRIES, but the tests failed for various reasons. 

For example: 

	 IRIES, the web service that EOIR uses to share data with its 

external Federal Government business partners, could not process 

the high volume of queries that SAVE requires. An EOIR official 

informed us that the IRIES web service was not designed to handle 

approximately 20 million queries expected from SAVE in 2014, not 

to mention the increased volume expected in subsequent years. 

	 Department of Justice efforts to modernize its infrastructure 

further delayed SAVE interface performance testing. According to 

USCIS officials, EOIR modernization changed the IRIES 

environment, requiring that USCIS re-code portions of the SAVE 

interface following a number of test failures. 

Ultimately, in June 2016, USCIS officials reported that they had 

successfully tested the interface between SAVE and IRIES, and it was 

ready for deployment. USCIS put the interface into production in August 

2016. However, USCIS and EOIR are in the process of approving an 

Interface Control Agreement to be in compliance with OMB Circular A130, Appendix III. As of early December 2016, USCIS’ Office of 

Information Technology and the Department of Justice’s Office of General 

Counsel were reviewing this agreement. Recommendation 2 will remain 

open but resolved until we obtain evidence that the Interface Control 

Agreement has been signed. 

Implementation of Recommendation 3 

We recommended that USCIS conduct periodic evaluations to validate 

the accuracy of SAVE initial verification. When a Federal, state, or local 

entity queries SAVE regarding the immigration status of an individual, 

SAVE uses VIS to validate the individual’s status. This “initial 

verification” process either 1) confirms that the benefit applicant has 

immigration status, or 2) prompts the inquiring agency to send the 

queries for additional manual verification. 

During this verification review, we confirmed that USCIS reasonably 

validated the accuracy of SAVE’s initial verification process. Specifically, 

we learned that on a monthly basis SAVE officials conduct statistical 

samples of about 64 queries to validate the accuracy of the SAVE initial 

verification results. This test entails reviewing the individual’s status 

recorded in VIS against information from multiple source systems 

www.oig.dhs.gov 3	 OIG-17-23-VR 
 

                                                      

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

 Department of Homeland Security 

containing immigration and entry and exit data.1 Source systems 

include, for example, external systems such as IRIES, ICE’s Student and 

Exchange Visitor Information System, U.S. Customs and Border 

Protection’s Arrival and Departure Information System and TECS, as well 

as USCIS’ own internal systems. After receiving October 2014 through 

May 2016 test results from the USCIS Verification Division, Program 

Development and Reporting Branch, we determined that the 

discrepancies identified were statistically insignificant. In addition, a 

Verification Division quality control official told us that the Program 

Development and Reporting Branch were able to resolve all potential 

discrepancies of validation tests performed over the past two years, 

which resulted in no significant discrepancies. We closed this 

recommendation in fiscal year 2014. Our verification review confirmed 

that all corrective actions have been completed. 

Implementation of Recommendation 4 

Our 2012 audit also recommended that USCIS periodically analyze SAVE 

initial verification evaluation results to determine whether the system 

risks verifying other populations erroneously. In October 2013, USCIS 

provided minutes indicating that it held monthly meetings to discuss 

initial verification results and to identify potential errors in other 

populations. We closed this recommendation in 2014 based on the 

documentation provided. 

Our verification review indicated that SAVE officials continue to monitor 

initial verification results for specific populations that may be at risk of 

erroneous verification. In addition, the monthly evaluation sample of 64 

cases can assist SAVE officials in verifying whether there is a pattern of 

incorrect verifications. 

1 VIS contains, or retrieves from data sources, information pertaining to 

citizenship, immigration, and employment status from data sources 

including Customs and Border Protection’s TECS (not an acronym), and 

USCIS’ Image Storage and Retrieval System, Central Index System, and 

Computer Linked Application Information Management System. 

www.oig.dhs.gov 4 OIG-17-23-VR 
 OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

 Department of Homeland Security 

Objective, Scope, and Methodology 

The objective was to perform a verification review to assess the USCIS 

progress in implementing recommendations from our report, 

Improvements Needed for the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for 

Entitlements Program) to Accurately Determine Immigration Status of 

Individuals Ordered Deported (OIG-13-11, December 2012).To conduct 

this verification review, we examined prior management directives and 

policies. We obtained a basic overview of how USCIS determines what 

data interfaces are necessary for the SAVE interface to provide accurate 

results. We inspected appropriate documentation, including the draft 

interface control agreement and monthly SAVE evaluation reports. We 

also interviewed SAVE program officials and system engineers, as well as 

representatives from the Department of Justice’s Office of General 

Counsel and its system engineering departments. 

USCIS did not provide formal management comments to this verification 

review report. 

We conducted this verification review between May and July 2016 

pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended. Major 

contributors to this report include Tuyet-Quan Thai, Director, Data 

Analytics and Support Division; and Ann Brooks, Audit Manager. 

Please call me with any questions, or your staff may contact Sondra 

McCauley, Assistant Inspector General, Office of Information Technology 

Audits at (202) 254-4100. 

www.oig.dhs.gov 5 OIG-17-23-VR 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND COPIES 

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at: DHS-OIG.OfficePublicAffairs@oig.dhs.gov. Follow us on Twitter at: @dhsoig. 

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