Unh¶ States Gene@ AccountAn# Office /.& ‘3 q 

T&timony 

iFor Release 'Immigration Reform: Implementations of 

jon Delivery 

iExpected at 

10:00 a.m. EDT 

IThursday 

IApril 14, 1988 

Legalization Program 

Statement of 

Arnold P. Jones, Senior Associate Director 

General Government Division 

Before the 

Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs 

Committee on the Judiciary 

United States Senate 

GAO/GGD-T-88-27 OAO Form ldo (IS/S?) 
IMPLEMENTATION OF LEGALIZATION PROGRAM ~ 

SUMMARY OF STATEMENT BY 

ARNOLD P. JONES 

SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR 

U.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE 

The fmmigration Reform and Control Act o&-+986 established a 

leg~1i~aafi..io~-~~r;,?g,x~ &hat permits undo~um~nt~...~~“~-~~s /to become 

peqanent residents. They have until May 4, 1988, to iapply. 

Congress is considering extending the deadline. No reliable 

data exists to foreca,st, the number of eligib,le.a.liens :who have 

not applied or will apply, if the deadline is extended. 

Therefore, we have no basis to challenge or support extending the 

deadline. In ,addition, studies by others provide reasons why 

some aliens have not applied. However, extending the deadline 

may not encourage these aliens to apply. In summary: 

-- The 1.1 million applications filed with the Immigration and 

Naturalization Service (INS) is less than its initial forecast 

of 2 to 3.9 million. INS is now estimating it will receive 

1.3 to 1.5 million applications, which is about the same as 

the Congressional Budget Office's estimate. 

-- Awareness of the legalization program is high among Hispanics, 

according to a study that addressed pr.ogram awareness. 

-- INS estimates that the application fees will cover iprogram 

costs if the deadline remains May 4, 1988. However, extending 

the program may require appropriated funds, if fees are 

significantly less than program costs. 

-- Based on our review, the operational problems that exist do 

not threaten the program's viability. 

-- The program has similarities to other countries' legalization 

programs. 
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: 

We are pleased to be here today to discuss our review of the 

Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) implementati;on of 

the legalization program for certain undocumented aliens. 

BACKGROUND 

Title II of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) 

established a legalization program (amnesty) to provide legal 

status to aliens who have continuously resided in the United 

States illegally since before January 1, 1982. Aliens have until 

May 4, 1988, to apply to INS for legalization. If approved, 

aliens would be granted temporary resident status. Eighteen 

months later they can apply for permanent resident status and 

eventually they could become U.S. citizens. Legislation, (H.R. 

3816 and S. 2015) has been introduced to extend the deadline. 

When applying for legalization, aliens have to provide documents 

as part of their applications. These include proof that they 

lived in the United States continuously since before January 1, 

1982, and can support themselves. Also, they have to include the 

results of their medical examinations and a set of their 

fingerprints. 

In May 1987, INS opened 107 legalization offices to receive and 

begin processing applications and four regional processing 

facilities to complete final processing of applications. In 

. 
addition, it contracted with a pr'ivate data processing center to 

enter data from applications into its computer systeti 

(legalization adjustment processing system or LAPS). 

IRCA requires that applicants pay fees that would cover the 

program expenses. The legislative history indicates that 

Congress intended that the fee charged be comparable to the fee 

charged aliens applying to enter the United States as immigrants. 

To make the fees comparable and still cover its program expenses, 

INS set the filing fee for temporary residence at $185 for each 

adult and $50 for each minor child, with a $420 maximum fee for 

families. In addition to the filing fee, aliens pay for services 

such as fingerprints, photographs, and medical examinations. 

To encourage undocumented aliens who might fear coming to INS 

directly, IRCA permits aliens to file their applications with 

community organizations, called Qualified Designated Entities 

(QDEs),~ in lieu of applying directly to INS. These entities 

usually provide services in the local communities and are known 

to the aliens who reside there. According to INS, approximately 

980 QDEs signed agreements to participate in the probram. TWO- I, 

thirds of the QDEs are affiliated with parent organizations, 

called National Coordinating Agencies (NCAs), such as the U.S. 

1Undocumented aliens may also engage lawyers to assist them in 

preparing their applications. 

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Catholic Conference and World Relief, and one-third are 

independent. 

We recently reviewed INS' activities to implement the 

legalization program to determine its status. We did our work in 

INS' Los Angeles and New York District Offices. We also 

discussed the program with INS staff from its Western and Eastern 

Regional Offices and Processing Facilities. We met with 

officials at 10 legalization offices and 9 QDEs. Also, we met 

with representatives of the NCAs during two of their regular 

meetings with INS and reviewed the minutes of their meetings. We 

also reviewed studies on reasons why aliens are not applying for 

the program, literature on amnesties conducted in five other 

countries, and other studies on legalization. 

In summary: 

-- The 1.1 million applications filed with INS is less than its 

initial forecast of 2 to 3.9 million. INS is now estimating 

1.3 to 1.5 million applications, which is about the same as 

the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimate. 

-- Awareness of the legalization program is high among Hispanics, 

according to a study that addressed program awareness. 

-- Studies by several organizations provide reasons why some 

aliens have not applied, and INS and some organizations have 

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taken actions to reduce the impact of these factors. 

Extending the deadline may not encourage these aliens to 

apply. 

-- INS estimates that the 3pplication fees will cover pg-ogram 

costs, if the deadline remains May 4, 1988. However, 

extending the program may require appropriated funds if fees 

are significantly less than program costs. 

-- Although operational problems exist, they do not threaten the 

program's viability. 

-- The program has similarities to other countries' Jegalization 

programs. 

No reliable data exists to forecast the number of eligible 

aliens who have not applied or will apply, if the deadline is 

extended. Because of the above factors, we have no basis to 

challenge or support extending the program deadline. 

PROJECTED AND ACTUAL 

LEGALIZATION APPLICANTS 

NO reliable data exists on the number of undocumented aliens in 

the United States or on the number eligible for the program. 

Using 1980 Census data and estimates obtained from its field 

offices and QDEs, INS projected it would receive 2 to 3.9 

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million applications, of which 80 percent would be filed at QDEs. 

CBO estimated that 1.4 million aliens would be granted temporary *1m- . 

resident status. 

As of March 25, 1988, a total of 1.1 million applications had 

been filed. INS expects between 1.3 and 1.5 million Bpplications 

will be filed by May 4, 1988. 

To try to increase the number of applications, INS made two 

changes in procedures for the final month of the program. 

-- It will pay QDEs and NCAs a recruiter fee for each applicant 

directed to a legalization office. This approach pays the 

organizations for their outreach efforts. 

-- It will not require aliens to submit documentation and medical 

information to support their applications for at least 60 days 

after they file completed applications and pay their filing 

fees. This gives aliens time beyond the May 4 deadline to 

gather support for their applications. 

As of March 25, INS' Western Region had received about 60 percent 

of the applications filed nationwide. Forty-six perdent of the 

nationwide applications (510,755) were from the Los Angeles 

District. As of February 19, most of the applicants nationwide 

(about 70 percent) were from Mexico. About 81 percent of 

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applicants filed directly with INS, while about 19 percent filed 

with QDEs. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION EFFORTS --- 

In our opinion, INS is making a good faith effort to publicize 

the legalization program. INS contracted with The Justice 

Group, a consortium of three companies, to advertise the 

program. From April through October 1987, the advertising was 

general and informative in nature. No advertising was done in 

November and December because INS did not want to compete with 

holiday advertising. A more persuasive advertising effort was 

started January 15, 1988, and was scheduled to continue through 

May. It was based on research studies funded by INS so that 

advertising would be targeted to different ethnic groups in 

various parts of the country. 

INS has also pursued other public education activities. For 

example, its headquarters and field officials have participated 

in ethnic days and traveled in mobile offices to remote areas to 

provide information and process applications. 

Under the terms of their agreements with INS, NCAs have 

responsibility to distribute public information materials 

prepared by INS. QDEs are to publicize their facilities locally. 

In their reports to INS, many NCAs outlined public information 

activities that went beyond this responsibility. For exgmple, 

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they and their QDE affiliates produced public service. 

announcements for radio and television. 'They printed ibrochures 

and participated in media discussions on legalization. During an 

April 1988 meeting, NCA members told us INS could have improved 

its initial efforts through such activities as providing QDEs 

with more printed material on the legalization program. 

Awareness that a legalization program exists appears to be high, 

at least among undocumented Hispanics. In October and November 

1987, Nustats, Inc., did a research study for The Justice Group. 

Using a combination of sampling techniques, the study found that 

92 percent of undocumented Hispanics were aware that a 

legalization program exists. The results from this study are 

considered, by Nustats and us, likely to be similar to the views 

of the U.S. Hispanic illegal alien population. 

STUDIES ON REASONS ELIGIBLE 

ALIENS HAVE NOT APPLIED 

Four studies and the views of NCA officials provided similar 

reasons why some eligible aliens did not apply for legalization. 

However, extending the deadline may not overcome them. 

The Nustats study said that perceived ineligibility by aliens was 

the most commonly cited reason for not applying. About half of 

the 143 Spanish speaking, undocumented aliens who had not applied 

cited this as a reason. Nustats could not determine whether or 

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, 

n o t they were indeed ineligible. o ther reasons the NuSt,atS study 

found th a t aliens were n o t applying (in order o f their frequency) 

were: (1) they do n o t have the money , (2) they do n o t k,now how 

to apply, (3) they are a fraid o f INS, and (4) they fear fa m ily 

separatio n . 

We reviewed three o ther studies2 th a t surveyed legalization 

applicants, o ther communi ty service providers, and QDE directors 

or immigration lawyers. W h ile each o f the three studies had 

lim ita tions th a t prevented the results from being projected 

beyond the people surveyed, their results were sim ilar to 

Nus ta ts’ . A ll o f the studies listed lack o f documen ta tion to 

support their application, fear o f INS, and costs as m a jor 

factors precluding people from applying. TWO o f the three also 

listed confusion abou t the program or law, and fear o f fa m ily 

separation as factors. 

In their quarterly reports to INS, some NCAS cited sim ilar 

reasons and added th a t some aliens lack a sense o f urgency and do 

n o t believe legalization is necessary, During an April 1988 

mee tin g , NCA members told us th a t some o f INS’ rulings on 

eligibility may have caused aliens n o t to apply. They pointed 

o u t th a t INS is considering revising some o f its initial 

decisions which could result in aliens now being eligible. 

2The studies were done by the Dallas Times Herald, the @ a tional 

A ssociation o f L a tin0 E lected and Appoin ted O fficials, and the 

P rivate Im m igration Agency . 

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INS and some private organizations have taken actions to help 

address the reasons why some eligible aliens are not appl,ying. 

For example, INS' Western Region has expanded its education 

efforts as the application deadline approaches. With respect to 

concerns that families may be separated because some members do 

not qualify, INS has said that such cases will be addressed on an 

individual basis and that no families have been separated. One 

private organization is providing 10 percent interest loans to 

aliens for the application costs. However, fewer aliens then 

expected have taken advantage of them. 

INS COSTS AND FEES 

As of March 1988, INS had spent about $150 million and had 

collected $176.2 million in fees. While fees have exceeded 

costs, additional costs will be incurred for those applications 

that INS has not processed. Such costs include checking the 

aliens' backgrounds with other agencies (e.g., Federal Bureau of 

Investigation). INS projects that the total fees that it will 

receive by the end of the application period (May 4, 1988) will 

cover all of the program-related costs. Should this not occur, 

INS will adjust the fees aliens pay when they apply for permanent 

resident status. 

If the program is extended beyond May 4, 1988, the ability of the 

application fees to cover the costs to continue the program is 

not known. This is because no reliable data exists to estimate 

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the number of aliens who may apply during the extension. 

Depending on the number of applications, the program may require 

appropriated funds or may result in a surplus of funds. 

OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS 

When INS began processing applications, several operational 

problems developed. As INS gained additional experience in 

processing applications, some of the initial problems related to 

office procedures and data entry into its information system 

were overcome. Also, INS staff worked overtime to reduce its 

case backlog. As of April 2, 1988, INS had reduced the 

percentage of unprocessed applications to about 25 piercent from 

about 45 percent as of February 18, 1988. However, ~internal 

control weaknesses exist in some legalization offices such a&: 

(1) temporary residency cards are not safeguarded and (2) INS has 

no assurance that fingerprint cards submitted with applications 

contain the fingerprints of the applying alien. These problems 

do not threaten the program's viability. 

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COMPARISON OF U.S. LEGALIZATION PROGRAM 

TO OTHER COUNTRIES' PROGRAM 

Many key elements of the U.S. legalization program are similar to 

programs in five other countries3 conducted over the last 15 

years. However, some of the requirements under IRCA are 

stricter than those in the other countries' programs. 

The U.S. program requires an alien to have lived here illegally 

for more than 5 years, and it requires that they pay application 

fees. In the other countries, an alien needed an average of 9.3 

months of residence to qualify. Only one other country 

(Australia) required aliens to pay an application fee. 

The U.S. period for filing applications is at least 6 months 

longer than the others. Only one country (France) extended its 

original application deadline. The extension was for two weeks. 

This concludes my prepared statement. I would be pleased to 

answer any questions the subcommittee may have. 

-----I--- 

3Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, and Venezuela. 

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