GAO-04-1030R Immigration Benefits 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

August 13, 2004 

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 

Subject: Immigration Benefits: Eleventh 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 19981

 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 

 

1

P.L. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681-538. 
Page 2 GAO-04-1030R Immigration Benefits 

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 eleventh report.2

RESULTS IN BRIEF

Through June 30, 2004, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), formerly 

part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), had received a total of 38,548 

HRIFA applications and had approved 11,917 of these applications.3

 The Executive Office for 

Immigration Review (EOIR) had 1,418 applications filed and had approved 454 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 USCIS’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 USCIS examiners. An application may be 

adjudicated at the service center or in a USCIS 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 USCIS officials. If an 

interview is required or other issues need to be resolved, the application is to be forwarded to 

the appropriate USCIS district, where the applicant can be interviewed and the application 

adjudicated. Data on Haitian applicants are to be entered in USCIS’s Computer Linked 

Application Information System (CLAIMS). 

 

2

The previous reports were (1) GAO, 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); (9) Immigration Benefits: Ninth Report Required by the Haitian 

Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-03-681R (Washington, D.C.: April 21, 2003); (10) 

Immigration Benefits: Tenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 

1998, GAO-04-189R (Washington, D.C.: October 17, 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 USCIS. 
Page 3 GAO-04-1030R Immigration Benefits 

Haitian nationals who are eligible for HRIFA should file their applications with EOIR rather 

than USCIS 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 USCIS.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 to file an application for adjustment of status under 

HRIFA was March 31, 2000. Dependents of principal applicants have no application deadline.5

HRIFA APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AND APPROVED BY USCIS

Through June 30, 2004, USCIS data showed that it had received 38,548 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 June 30, 2004, USCIS had 

approved 11,917 applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA. 

Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and Approved by USCIS, through 

June 30, 2004 

Principal or 

dependent Category of applicant 

Number of applications in 

CLAIMS 

Number of applications 

approved

Principal Asylum 17,325 6,228

Principal Parolee 8,902 2,744

Principal Child without parents 1,228 138

Principal Orphaned child 240 26

Principal Abandoned child 481 28

Dependent Spouse 3,532 829

Dependent Child 6,487 1,841

Dependent Unmarried son or daughter 353 83

Total 38,548 11,917

Source: USCIS data. 

HRIFA APPLICATIONS FILED WITH AND APPROVED BY EOIR

Through June 30, 2004, EOIR data from ANSIR showed that 1,418 HRIFA applications had 

been filed with EOIR, of which 454 had been approved for adjustment of status. Table 2 

provides information on the categories and numbers of HRIFA applicants and approvals. 

 

4

EOIR was not transferred to the Department of 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. Finalized regulations implementing these 

changes to HRIFA went into effect on June 4, 2002. 
Page 4 GAO-04-1030R Immigration Benefits 

Table 2: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Filed with and Approved by EOIR, through 

June 30, 2004 

Principal or 

dependent Category of applicant 

Number of applications in 

ANSIR

Number of applications 

approved

Principal Asylum 794 242

Principal Parolee 353 109

Principal Child without parents 72 27

Principal Orphaned child 10 5

Principal Abandoned child 10 4

Dependent Spouse 118 43

Dependent Child 52 19

Dependent Unmarried son or 

daughter 

9 5

Total 1,418 454

Source: EOIR data. 

OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND METHODOLOGY

Our objectives for this report were to determine (1) the number and categories of applicants 

who filed applications with USCIS or EOIR and (2) the number and categories of applicants 

whose applications were approved by USCIS or EOIR. To attain these objectives, we relied 

on USCIS and EOIR to provide us with data from their CLAIMS and ANSIR systems, 

respectively, on applicants and the number of approvals. We assessed the reliability of the 

data by reviewing existing information about the data and the system that produced them, 

and we questioned agency officials knowledgeable about the data. We determined that the 

data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. We conducted our work 

between June and August 2004, 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. The Departments had no comments on this 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 Tanya Cruz. 

Laurie E. Ekstrand 

Director, Homeland Security 

 and Justice Issues 

(440340)