United States General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

Page 1 GAO-01-118R Immigration Benefits

October 20, 2000

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 Obey, Ranking Minority Member

Committee on Appropriations

House of Representatives

The Honorable Henry J. Hyde, Chairman

The Honorable John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Minority Member

Committee on the Judiciary

House of Representatives

Subject: Immigration Benefits: Fourth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration

Fairness Act of 1998

This letter responds to certain requirements of the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act

of 19981

(HRIFA) 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 on the numbers 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 fourth report.2

1

P.L. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681-538.

2

The previous reports were (1) Immigration Benefits: Applications for Adjustment of Status Under the Haitian Refugee

Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (GAO/GGD-99-92R, Apr. 21, 1999); (2) Immigration Benefits: Second Report Required by the
Page 2 GAO-01-118R Immigration Benefits

Results in Brief

As of September 30, 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had received a

total of 35,257 HRIFA applications and had approved 263 of these applications. The

Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had 95 HRIFA applications filed and had

approved 65 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 INS’ Nebraska Service Center in Lincoln,

NE. INS’ contractor at the service center is responsible for processing the applications up to

the point of their adjudication by INS examiners. An application may be adjudicated at the

service center or in the INS 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 INS officials. If an interview is required or

other issues need to be resolved, the application is to be forwarded to the appropriate INS

district where the applicant can be interviewed and the application adjudicated. Data on

Haitian applicants are to be entered in INS’ Computer Linked Application Information System

(CLAIMS).

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

than INS 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 INS. 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. Dependants of principal applicants have no application deadline.

HRIFA Applications Received by INS

As of September 30, 2000, INS data showed that INS had received 35,257 HRIFA applications

at the Nebraska Service Center. Of these, 215 were being processed in the mail room or were

awaiting data-entry processing. The remaining 35,042 had been entered into CLAIMS, and the

categories and numbers of these applicants are shown in table 1. As of September 30, 2000,

INS had approved 263 applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA.

Haitian Refugee Immigraiton Fairness Act of 1998 (GAO/GGD-00-25R, Oct. 19, 1999); and (3) Immigration Benefits: Third Report

Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (GAO/GGD-00-122R, Apr. 14, 2000).
Page 3 GAO-01-118R Immigration Benefits

Principal or dependent Category of applicant

Number of applications

in CLAIMS

Number of applications

approved

Principal Asylum 17,268 182

Principal Parolee 8,887 39

Principal Child without parents 1,224 0

Principal Orphaned child 238 0

Principal Abandoned child 480 0

Dependent Spouse 2,615 4

Dependent Child 4,053 35

Dependent Unmarried son or daughter 277 3

Total 35,042 263

Source: INS data.

HRIFA Applications Received by EOIR

As of September 30, 2000, EOIR data showed that 95 HRIFA applications had been filed with

EOIR, of which 65 had been approved for adjustment of status. Table 2 provides information

on the categories and numbers of HRIFA applicants and approvals.

Principal or

dependent Category of applicant

Number of applicant

filings in ANSIR

Number of applicants

filings approved

Principal Asylum 38 28

Principal Parolee 18 13

Principal Child without parents 25 15a

Principal Orphaned child 3 2

Principal Abandoned child 2 2

Dependent Spouse 6 3

Dependent Child 1 1

Dependent Unmarried son or daughter 2 1

Total 95 65

a

In 1 of the 15 cases, the order granting adjustment is not administratively final because an appeal has been filed.

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 INS or EOIR, and (2) the number and categories of applicants

whose applications were approved by INS or EOIR. To fulfill these objectives, we relied on

INS and EOIR to provide us with data on applicants and the number of approvals. We

conducted our work between September and October 2000, in accordance with generally

accepted government auditing standards.

We provided the Department of Justice with a draft of this report for comment and received

informal comments on October 20, 2000. In their oral comments, INS and EOIR officials

Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and Approved by INS, as of

September 30, 2000

Table 2: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applicants Filed With and Approved by EOIR, as of

September 30, 2000
Page 4 GAO-01-118R Immigration Benefits

agreed with the information in the report, and their technical comments were incorporated

where appropriate.

We are providing copies of this report to the Honorable Janet Reno, Attorney General,

and will make copies available to others upon request. If you have any questions

about this report, please contact Evi L. Rezmovic or me at (202) 512-8777. The key

contributor to this assignment was Linda Watson.

Laurie E. Ekstrand

Director, Justice Issues
Page 5 GAO-01-118R Immigration Benefits
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