Report to Congressional Requesters

United States General Accounting Office

GAO

November 2002 HOMELAND

SECURITY

INS Cannot Locate

Many Aliens Because

It Lacks Reliable

Address Information

GAO-03-188
Why GAO Did This Study

Following the terrorist attacks of

September 11, 2001, the federal

government’s need to locate

aliens in the United States was

considerably heightened. Without

reliable alien address

information, the government is

impeded in its ability to find

aliens who represent a national

security threat or who could help

with the nation’s anti-terrorism

efforts. Requesters from both the

Senate and House asked GAO to

review the reliability of INS’s

alien address information and

identify the ways it could be

improved.

November 2002

HOMELAND SECURITY

INS Cannot Locate Many Aliens Because It

Lacks Reliable Address Information

The full report, including GAO's objectives, scope, methodology, and analysis is available at www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-188. For additional

information about the report, contact Richard M. Stana at (202) 512-8777.

Highlights of GAO-03-188, a report to the Honorable Strom Thurmond, United States Senate, and

George W. Gekas, Chairman, Subcommitee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, Committee

on the Judiciary, House of Representatives

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommendations to the

Attorney General include

instructing the Commissioner of

INS to do the following:

• Publicize the change of address

notification requirement.

• Establish procedures and

controls to ensure that alien

address information in all

automated databases is

complete, consistent, accurate,

and current.

• Establish procedures and

controls that permit INS to

enforce the penalty provisions

for noncompliance with the

change of address notification

requirement.

• Evaluate alternative

approaches and their costs for

obtaining or assembling

complete alien address

information.

United States General Accounting Office

What GAO Found

Recent events have shown that INS’s alien address information could not be

fully relied on to locate many aliens who were of interest to the United

States. For example, the Department of Justice sought to locate and

interview 4,112 aliens who were believed to be in the country and who might

have knowledge that would assist the nation in its anti-terrorism efforts.

However, as shown below, almost half of these aliens could not be located

and interviewed because INS lacked reliable address information.

The reliability of INS’s alien address information is contingent, in part, on

aliens’ compliance with the requirement that they notify INS of any change

of address. However, lack of publicity about the requirement that aliens

should file change of address notifications, no enforcement of penalties for

noncompliance, and inadequate processing procedures for changes of

address also contribute to INS’s alien address information being unreliable.

Because INS does not publicize the change of address requirement, some

aliens may not be aware of it and may not comply with it. Alternatively,

some aliens who are aware of the requirement may not comply because they

do not wish to be located. These aliens have little incentive to comply given

that INS does not enforce the penalties for noncompliance. On the basis of

our review of available data, INS does not appear to have enforced the

removal penalty for noncompliance since the early 1970s. When aliens do

comply with the requirement, INS lacks adequate processing procedures and

controls to ensure that the alien address information it receives is recorded

in all automated databases.

Addressing these problems should help improve the reliability of INS’s alien

address information but would not necessarily result in a system that would

allow INS to reliably locate all aliens, because some aliens will not likely

comply. INS has recognized the need to increase the reliability of its alien

address information and is taking some steps to improve it.

DOJ Sought to Locate and Interview 4,112 Aliens

55% of aliens

were located

and interviewed

2,261

1,851

45% of aliens

could not be located

and interviewed

Source: GAO’s analysis of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys’ interview project data as of

March 20, 2002.

G A O

Accountability Integrity Reliability

Highlights
Page i GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Letter 1

Results in Brief 2

Background 4

Congress Provided the Framework for INS to Locate Aliens 8

INS’s Alien Address Records Are Not Reliable 12

Lack of Publicity, No Enforcement of Penalties, and Inadequate

Processing Procedures Contribute to INS’s Unreliable Address

Information 16

INS’s Actions to Improve Alien Address Reliability 23

Conclusions 24

Recommendations for Executive Action 25

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 26

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 29

Appendix II An Historical Overview of INS’s Alien Registration

Programs, 1940-1981 31

The Alien Registration Program of 1940 31

The Alien Address Report Program of 1950 32

Alien Registration Programs Shared Common Program Elements 34

Appendix III Comments from the Department of Justice 42

Appendix IV GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 46

Contacts 46

Acknowledgments 46

Tables

Table 1: Examples of Requests for Alien Registration Data INS

Approved and Their Intended Use 38

Table 2: Examples of Requests for Alien Registration Data INS

Denied and Their Intended Use 38

Table 3: Examples of Requests for Alien Address Report Program

Data INS Approved and the Intended Uses 39

Contents
Page ii GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figures

Figure 1: INS’s Form AR-11 Is Available in Six Languages 6

Figure 2: Requirements and Penalties for Registration and Address

Reporting from June 28, 1940 to June 28, 2002 10

Figure 3: INS’s Alien Address Report Provided for Collecting

Aliens’ SSNs 15

Figure 4: INS’s Processing of the Form AR-11 20

Figure 5: INS’s Processing of Other Change of Address Forms 21

Figure 6: Number of Aliens Who Reported During the Alien

Address Report Program, 1951-1980 33

Figure 7: The Post Office Department Cancelled Stamps with a

Reminder That Aliens Must Report Their Addresses 35

Figure 8: INS’s 1953 Sign Placed in Post Offices Instructing Aliens

to Report Their Addresses 36

Abbreviations

CLAIMS 3 Computer Linked application Information Management

 System

DACS Deportable Alien Control System

DOJ Department of Justice

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

INS Immigration and Naturalization Service

NIIS Nonimmigrant Information System

SSN Social Security number
Page 1 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

November 21, 2002

The Honorable Strom Thurmond

United States Senate

The Honorable George W. Gekas

Chairman, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims

Committee on the Judiciary

House of Representatives

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the federal

government’s need to locate aliens who represented a national security

threat or who could help with the nation’s anti-terrorism efforts was

considerably heightened.1

 The Immigration and Naturalization Service

(INS) is the federal agency that is responsible for maintaining address

information for aliens who are in the United States and was called upon to

help by providing current addresses for aliens who were being sought by

the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, efforts to locate these aliens

were impeded by INS’s lack of current address information.

Because of growing concern over the government’s need to locate aliens,

you asked us to determine what was impeding INS from using its alien

address information to reliably locate aliens in the United States. This

report discusses (1) the statutory framework that requires aliens to report

their addresses and any address changes, (2) the reliability of INS’s alien

address records to locate aliens who were sought by DOJ, and (3) the

principal factors affecting the reliability of INS’s alien address records.

You further asked for historical background information on prior alien

registration requirements and programs, which is included in appendix II.

To determine the statutory framework that requires aliens to report their

addresses and any address changes, we identified and reviewed the laws

and regulations, congressional testimony and reports, and prior GAO

reports. To determine whether INS’s alien address information can be

used to reliably locate aliens in the United States, we reviewed INS

documentation and data, observed processing of the change of address

 1

References in this report to aliens, unless otherwise specified, refer to those immigrants

and nonimmigrants in the United States who are required to provide address information.

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548
Page 2 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

forms in INS headquarters, and interviewed INS managers and staff and a

representative of the U.S. Postal Service. We also interviewed senior

representatives from the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secret Service, and the Foreign

Terrorist Tracking Task Force.2

 To identify the principal factors affecting

the reliability of INS’s alien address records, we analyzed the information

we obtained during the review. To obtain information on the historical

background of the alien registration requirement and programs, we

reviewed INS historical documentation and data and interviewed INS

managers and staff. See appendix I for a more detailed discussion of our

scope and methodology.

We performed our work from October 2001 through September 2002 in

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. We

requested comments on a draft of this report from the Attorney General.

Since 1940, the Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires

aliens entering or residing in the United States to provide identifying and

address information. This information is provided to INS. While the law

requires aliens who remain in the United States for 30 days or longer to

apply for registration, INS usually registers aliens at the time of their entry

into the country. Registration documents provide an alien’s identity and

address where the alien can be located. The law requires that an alien

report any change of address within 10 days of moving. Thus, if aliens

comply with the requirement, INS should be able to record and maintain

an address history for each alien, including their current address. If an

alien fails to comply with the change of address notification requirement,

it can result in the alien’s prosecution for a misdemeanor. As provided in

law, irrespective of whether the alien is charged with or convicted of a

misdemeanor, an alien, who fails to notify the Attorney General in writing

of each change of address and new address within 10 days from the date of

such change, shall be taken into custody and removed from the United

States unless the alien can establish to the satisfaction of the Attorney

General that the failure was reasonably excusable or was not willful.

 2

On October 29, 2001, the President directed the Attorney General to create the Foreign

Terrorist Tracking Task Force (Homeland Security Presidential Directive – 2, National

Security Presidential Directives). The task force is to ensure that federal agencies

coordinate their programs so that aliens associated with, suspected of being engaged in, or

supporting terrorist activity are to be denied entry into and removed from the United

States.

Results in Brief
Page 3 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Recent events have shown that INS’s alien address information cannot be

relied on to locate aliens. For example, as part of the nation’s antiterrorism effort, the Attorney General directed all U.S. Attorneys in

November 2001 to locate and request voluntary interviews with about

4,800 nonimmigrant aliens who were believed to be in this country. U.S.

Attorneys, in cooperation with the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force,

obtained the names and addresses for these aliens from INS. The task

force further supplemented INS’s alien address information by obtaining

address information from public source databases. The aliens’ names and

addresses were then forwarded to the U.S. Attorneys in order that they

could locate and request interviews with them. U.S. Attorneys determined

that 681 aliens had left the country. By the end of February 2002, even with

the information from public source data bases, 1,851, or about 45 percent,

of the 4,112 aliens who were believed to still be in the country had not

been located and interviewed. Two other DOJ efforts to locate aliens have

met with even less success.

Lack of publicity, no enforcement of penalties for not filing change of

address notifications, and inadequate processing procedures and controls

explain in part why INS’s alien address information is unreliable.

Unreliable address information can also be attributed, in part, to aliens’

failure to report changes of address to the INS. Some aliens may be

unaware that they need to file a change of address form and do not

comply. This may be understandable given that INS does not publicize the

change of address requirement. Aliens may be aware that they need to file

but do not comply because they have little incentive to do so. On the basis

of our review of available data, INS does not appear to have enforced the

removal penalty for noncompliance since the early 1970s. According to

INS officials, INS cannot and does not enforce the penalty provisions of

the law because it cannot determine and certify from its change of address

records whether an alien failed to file the change of address notification.

When aliens are aware of and comply with the requirement to file a change

of address notification, INS’s address information may still be unreliable.

INS lacks adequate procedures and controls to ensure that the alien

address information it receives is completely processed. Addressing these

problems should help improve the reliability of INS’s address information

but would not necessarily result in a system that would allow INS to

reliably locate all aliens. This is because the accuracy and reliability of

INS’s address information is contingent on aliens’ compliance and some

aliens may not comply.

In April 2002, INS established an Address Issues Task Force to review and

assess how alien address information is processed. The task force
Page 4 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

recommended a multi-phased strategy to improve operational efficiency.

As of September 11, 2002, INS had accepted the task force’s

recommendations. The Executive Associate Commissioner for

Management was designated as the lead agency official for address issues,

an Address Issues Office was established, and the Commissioner approved

a Senior Level Advisory Group for address issues. INS has also taken the

first steps toward establishing a centralized address repository and plans

to implement the task force’s other recommendations.

We are making seven recommendations to the Attorney General to

promote compliance through publicity and enforcement and to improve

INS’s identification and processing of aliens’ address information. We

provided DOJ with a draft of this report for comment, and it generally

concurred with five, and did not comment on two of them. DOJ’s

comments are included as appendix III.

INS regulates immigration to the United States and oversees immigrants,

who intend to remain permanently in the United States, and

nonimmigrants, who intend to remain in the United States temporarily.

INS receives and maintains alien address information for benefits

administration, law enforcement, and national security purposes. Through

registration and change of address notifications, aliens provide their

identity and an address where they can be located while in the United

States to INS, which can share this information to help law enforcement

officials identify and locate aliens.3

Generally, INS registers aliens at the time of their entry, using 1 of

12 different INS forms, including the Arrival and Departure Record

(Form I-94). For example, aliens arriving in the United States are

generally required to complete a two-part Form I-94. The first part records

aliens’ arrivals. The second part is to be surrendered when aliens leave the

country. INS is to match the first and second parts of the Form I-94 to

identify those aliens who have left the country. However, as reported by

DOJ’s Inspector General in 1997 and 2002, INS lacked many Form

 3

Registration is a shared responsibility between the Departments of State and Justice. The

Attorney General is responsible for registering aliens who remain in the United States for

30 days or more and who have not otherwise registered, such as during the visa application

process administered by the Department of State. The Attorney General is also responsible

for collecting change of address information and issuing certificates of registration.

Background
Page 5 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

I-94 departure records, and as a result, INS could not identify all of the

aliens who had left the country.4

Aliens are required to report their change of address to INS within 10 days

of moving. Failure to report a change of address can result in an alien

being taken into custody and placed in removal proceedings before an

immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review. To

place an alien in proceedings, INS is to serve the alien with a Notice to

Appear, which cites the charge(s) and the date and location where the

hearing is to be held. At the conclusion of the hearing, the immigration

judge may order the alien to be removed or may grant relief from removal.

Either INS or the alien may appeal the immigration judge’s decision to the

Board of Immigration Appeals.

As shown in figure 1, INS has a prescribed change of address form, (i.e.,

Form AR-11) that is available in six languages (English, Spanish, Chinese,

Russian, Korean, and Vietnamese) and is to be used by all aliens to report

their new addresses.

 4

See Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Immigration and

Naturalization Service Monitoring of Nonimmigrant Overstays, Report Number I-97-08

(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 1997); and Follow-Up Report On INS Efforts To Improve The

Control of Nonimmigrant Overstays, Report No. I-2002-006, (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 2002).
Page 6 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 1: INS’s Form AR-11 Is Available in Six Languages

Source: INS.

Chinese Russian

Korean

Vietnamese

Spanish

USA

English

(postcard)
Page 7 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Congress

mandated that INS improve its ability to identify aliens who arrive and

depart the United States and who overstay their visas. In Section 110 of the

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 19965

 and

amendments to that section, the Congress reinforced the importance of

the government being able to identify which lawfully admitted

nonimmigrants remained in the United States beyond their authorized

period. This section directs the Attorney General to develop an integrated

entry and exit control system that will collect the records of arrival and

departure for every alien entering and leaving the United States. The

1996 act also authorized the establishment of an electronic student

tracking system to verify and monitor the foreign student and exchange

visitor information program.6

 The deadline for implementing the new

electronic student tracking system is January 1, 2003.

According to proposed rules issued by DOJ on June 13, 2002, the events of

September 11 point to the need to implement measures that would provide

the government with information on certain aliens who are in the country,

whether they are in compliance with their authorized limits of stay, and

their activities and whereabouts. The USA Patriot Act (P.L. 107-56),

enacted in October 2001, directs the Attorney General to implement the

entry-exit system “with all deliberate speed and as expeditiously as

practicable” and authorized funds to fully implement INS’s new foreign

student tracking system. The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry

Reform Act (P.L. 107-173), enacted in May 2002, also authorized funds for

implementing the foreign student tracking system.7

 The Congress has

required that the entry-exit system be implemented at airports and

seaports by December 31, 2003.

 5

P.L. 104-208, codified at 1365a.

6

Section 641, codified at 8 U.S.C. 1372.

7

The Congress is considering the inclusion of INS in the Office of Homeland Security.
Page 8 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Since the 1940 passage of the Alien Registration Act, the Congress has

required aliens to register and provide address information so that the

government can track aliens’ past and current locations and locate aliens

when necessary.8

 As part of the effort to protect the nation in anticipation

of World War II, the Congress required aliens to register, be fingerprinted,

and notify the Attorney General of each change of address, thereby

providing INS with the means to identify, track, and locate aliens while

they are in the United States. According to the legislative history of the

Alien Registration Act, the act was considered to be “a measure of selfdefense to provide for the fingerprinting and registration of all aliens in the

United States...(and)...a safeguard to know something about their

activities and their movements here.”9

Although some requirements of the law have varied since 1940, the

Congress has continuously required immigrant and nonimmigrant aliens

entering or living in the United States to provide identifying and current

address information and has provided penalties for failing to register or

file address information. As shown in figure 2, the Alien Registration Act

of 1940 required immigrant and nonimmigrant aliens to register with the

government.10 Immigrants were required to report changes of address

within 5 days, and nonimmigrants were required to report their address

every 90 days irrespective of whether they had moved. In 1950, the

Congress increased the reporting requirements for immigrants by requiring

them to annually report their addresses.11 In 1952, the Congress extended

the annual address reporting and change of address notification

requirements to all aliens and also extended from 5 to 10 days the amount

of time aliens were provided to file a change of address.12 In 1981, the

Congress eliminated the requirements that aliens annually report their

addresses and that nonimmigrants report their address every 90 days.13

 8

Diplomats, representatives of international organizations and their families, and

individuals remaining in the United States for less than 30 days are not required to register.

9

86 Cong. Rec. H. 9033 (June 22, 1940) (statement of Rep. C.E. Hancock, one of the House

managers).

10Ch. 439, 54 Stat. 670 (1940).

11The Internal Security Act of 1950 required alien residents to annually report their

addresses. Ch. 1024, 64 Stat. 987. The law also extended coverage to nonimmigrants who

had overstayed their visas and any alien in an illegal status.

12Immigration and Nationality Act, Ch. 477, 66 Stat. 163 (1952).

13Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1981, P.L. No. 97-116, 95 Stat. 1611

(1981).

Congress Provided

the Framework for

INS to Locate Aliens
Page 9 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Although the Congress eliminated these requirements, it vested the

Attorney General with discretionary authority, upon 10 days’ notice, to

require aliens from any country or countries, or any class or group, who

are required to be registered, to provide their current address and such

additional information as may be required.14 These changes represent the

latest amendments to the laws governing alien registration and address

reporting. The Congress currently requires aliens to provide address

information through registration and change of address reporting

requirements.15

In addition to the registration and change of address requirements, the

Congress has continuously provided penalties for aliens who failed to

comply with these requirements, as shown in figure 2. The misdemeanor

penalty enacted in 1940 for failing to file a change of address notice was a

fine of up to a $100 and/or imprisonment for up to 30 days. In 1952, the

misdemeanor penalty was increased to a $200 fine and/or imprisonment

for up to 30 days and a removal penalty was added, irrespective of

whether the alien is charged with or convicted of a misdemeanor. The law

provides that an alien, who fails to notify the Attorney General in writing

of each change of address and new address within 10 days from the date of

such change, shall be taken into custody and removed from the United

States unless the alien can establish to the satisfaction of the Attorney

General that the failure was reasonably excusable or was not willful. As of

September 2002, this penalty remained in effect.16

 14The Attorney General’s discretionary authority in 8 U.S.C. 1305(b) extends to “the natives

of any one or more foreign states, or any class or group thereof” referred to here as aliens.

15The current requirements for alien registration and change of address are codified at

8 U.S.C. 1301-1306.

16The current penalties for noncompliance with registration and change of address

requirements are codified at 8 U.S.C. 1306.
Page 10 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 2: Requirements and Penalties for Registration and Address Reporting from June 28, 1940 to June 28, 2002

Legislation and

dates of applicability

Immigrants Nonimmigrants

Registera

No

Yes requirement

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yesb

Yes

No

No

requirement

No

requirement

No

penalty

Deportationc

No

requirement

No

requirement

No

requirement

No

requirement

No

requirement

No

Within 10 days

Within 5

days

Unchanged Unchanged

Within 10

days of

January 1st

Within 30

days of

January 1st

Within 30

days of

January 1st

Within 10

days

Unchanged Unchanged

File change of

address notice Registera Report addressevery 90 days

File change

of address notice

Annually report

their address

Annually report

their address

Penalties for noncompliance

Registration and address reporting requirements

Alien Registration

Act of 1940

(June 28, 1940 to

September 22, 1950)

Fine not to exceed $100

and/or imprisonment for

not more than 30 days

Fine not to exceed $100

and/or imprisonment for

not more than 30 days

Unchanged Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged Unchanged

Fine not to exceed $1,000

and/or imprisonment

not more than 6 months

for willful failure or

refusal to comply with the

registration requirements

Fine not to exceed $200

and/or imprisonment

not more than 30 days.

Removal of the alien 

 from the United States.d

Fine not to exceed $200

and/or imprisonment

not more than 30 days.

Removal of the alien 

 from the United States.d

Fine not to exceed $200

and/or imprisonment

not more than 30 days.

Removal of the alien 

 from the United States.d

Failure to register Failure to file change

of address notice

Failure to annually

report address

Failure to report

address every 90 days

Internal Security

Act 1950

(September 23, 1950

to June 26, 1952)

Immigration and

Naturalization Act

(June 27, 1952 to

December 28, 1981)

Immigration and

Nationality Act

Amendments of 1981

(Dec. 29, 1981 to

June 28, 2002)
Page 11 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

a

All aliens 14 years of age or older who remain in the United States for 30 days or more must register.

A parent or legal guardian must register an alien who is under 14 years of age. Exceptions to the

registration requirements are provided for aliens who remain in the United States for less than

30 days, foreign government officials and their family members, and representatives of international

organizations and their family members.

b

Required by regulation 8 C.F.R. 119.3 (1950).

c

The requirement to report an address every 90 days was by regulation (8 C.F.R. 119.3), a condition

of entry. Violation of a condition of entry could result in an alien’s deportation.

d

An alien is to be removed from the United States unless the alien establishes to the satisfaction of

the Attorney General that the violation was reasonably excusable or was not willful.

Source: GAO’s analysis.

On June 13 and July 26, 2002, DOJ reiterated that certain aliens are legally

obligated to file a change of address form with INS within 10 days of

moving to a new address to be used for enforcement and other purposes.

On June 13, 2002, DOJ issued a proposed rule concerning the registration

and monitoring of certain nonimmigrants.17 Specifically, the proposed rule

would impose registration requirements on nonimmigrants from Iran, Iraq,

Libya, Sudan, and Syria; certain nonimmigrant aliens from other countries

that the State Department and INS determine to be an elevated national

security risk; and aliens fitting specific criteria who are identified by INS

inspectors at points of entry into the United States. Individuals falling into

these categories would be required to provide specific information at

regular intervals to ensure that they were in compliance with the terms of

their visas and admission and that they departed at the end of their

authorized stay. The proposed rule reminded aliens that they are required

to submit to INS changes of address and that failure to do so could result

in their removal. The final rule was published and became effective on

September 11, 2002.18

On July 26, 2002, INS issued a proposed rule requiring every alien who is

applying for immigration benefits to acknowledge having received notice

of the requirement to provide a valid current address to INS, including any

change of address within 10 days of the change.19 INS plans to use the most

recent address information for all purposes, including the service of a

Notice to Appear if INS initiates removal proceedings.

 1767 Fed. Reg. 40581 (June 13, 2002).

1867 Fed. Reg. 52584 (August 12, 2002).

1967 Fed. Reg. 48818 (July 26, 2002).
Page 12 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Despite these laws and regulations, INS’s address information cannot be

relied upon to locate many aliens who are in the United States. Since

September 11, 2001, DOJ has made several different attempts to locate

aliens as part of its anti-terrorism efforts. These efforts have not been fully

successful. In addition, the alien identifying and address information

maintained by INS may not allow law enforcement officials to verify the

identity of an alien being sought in cases where several aliens have the

same name but are located at different addresses. Senior representatives

of the FBI, the Secret Service, and the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task

Force told us that the ability to locate aliens within the United States is

crucial to their respective missions. According to a senior representative

of the task force, the ability to locate aliens in this country is also crucial

to the nation’s success in fighting the war on terrorism.

On November 9, 2001, as part of the nation’s anti-terrorism effort, the

Attorney General directed all U.S. Attorneys to locate and request

voluntary interviews with 4,793 nonimmigrant aliens who might have had

knowledge of foreign terrorists or their organizations. To assist the U.S.

Attorneys, the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force asked INS to provide

current address information for the aliens who were to be sought for

interviews. INS obtained the address information from the Nonimmigrant

Information System (NIIS), an automated database that contains address

and identity information on nonimmigrants who were inspected upon their

entry into the United States. Because the task force considered INS’s

address information to be of questionable reliability, it consulted public

source databases and supplemented INS’s information in order to provide

the most current address information for these aliens to the U.S.

Attorneys. U.S. Attorneys determined that 681 aliens had left the country.

As of February 26, 2002, even with the information from public source

data bases, 1,851, or 45 percent, of the 4,112 aliens believed to be in the

country had not been located and interviewed while 2,261, or 55 percent,

had been located and interviewed.20

As a second example, INS investigators determined that INS’s address

information was inaccurate for 45 aliens who may have known some of

the terrorists responsible for the September 11th attacks. According to the

Assistant District Director for Investigations in San Diego, he was advised

that at least two of the terrorists had student visas and were supposed to

 20According to an Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys’ report, “a small percentage” of aliens

were located and declined to be interviewed.

INS’s Alien Address

Records Are Not

Reliable
Page 13 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

be attending school in the San Diego area. He requested that INS

headquarters provide him with a list of aliens with student visas who had

entered the United States within the last 2 years and, at the time of their

entry, indicated they were going to the San Diego area. From a list of

700 aliens, INS investigators identified 45 whom they wanted to locate.

According to INS investigators who sought to locate these aliens, INS’s

address information for all 45 student aliens was inaccurate as none of

them were located at the addresses that INS had provided. Efforts to

supplement INS’s address information with the schools’ address

information provided accurate addresses for 10 students. It is possible that

some or all of the 35 aliens that INS could not locate had left the country.

As a third example, in January 2002, the Deputy Attorney General directed

INS and other DOJ components to establish an Absconder Apprehension

Initiative to locate and remove aliens who had been ordered removed but

who had failed to leave the United States. Of the estimated 314,000 aliens

with final orders of removal still at large in the United States, INS

identified 5,046 who were from countries in which there has been an

Al Qaeda terrorist presence or activity. To locate and apprehend these

aliens, INS, in cooperation with the FBI, the Foreign Terrorist Tracking

Task Force, and U.S. Attorneys, used INS address data and supplemented

these data with address information from public source databases.

According to a senior INS official, as of June 24, 2002, 4,334, or 86 percent,

of the 5,046 alien absconders had not been apprehended, while 712, or

14 percent, had been apprehended. It is possible that some of the aliens

who had not been located may have left the country.

These examples illustrate one inherent limitation of an address reporting

requirement that relies on self reporting, as the reliability and

completeness of the address information is dependent on the extent to

which aliens comply with the reporting requirement. Those aliens who

wish to remain illegally in the country would not likely comply as it could

lead to their removal. In these examples, many aliens were not found even

after INS’s address information was supplemented with address

information from public source databases or schools, which could indicate

that some aliens may be able to avoid detection.

In addition, aliens’ identifying and address information maintained by INS

may not allow law enforcement officials to verify the identity of an alien

being sought in cases where several aliens have the same name but are

located at different addresses. Senior officials from the FBI, the Secret

Service, and the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force stressed the need

to be able to verify an alien’s identity in order to determine the correct
Page 14 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

address. These officials recommended that INS collect aliens’ Social

Security numbers (SSNs) in order to verify an alien’s identity. The law

provides authority for the Attorney General to require aliens to provide

their SSNs.21 As shown in figure 3, INS formerly collected aliens’ SSNs on

the Form I-53 as part of the alien address reporting program.

 218 U.S.C. 1304(f).
Page 15 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 3: INS’s Alien Address Report Provided for Collecting Aliens’ SSNs

Source: INS.
Page 16 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

When the program ended in 1981,22 INS eliminated the Form I-53 and did

not revise the change of address form (Form AR-11) to provide for aliens

to report their SSNs. Collecting aliens’ SSNs can help verify an individual’s

identity and provide ready access to records, such as drivers licenses and

financial records, that are searchable using SSNs. Having aliens’ SSNs

would also afford the federal government a better opportunity to locate

aliens through automated databases that are searchable using SSNs.23

Revising the Form AR-11, to include a field that an alien can use to report

a SSN or indicate that he or she does not have one, would provide one

method for collecting this information.

Lack of publicity, no enforcement of penalties for not filing a change of

address notification, and inadequate procedures and controls for

processing change of address notifications explain in part why INS cannot

maintain current and reliable address information. Unreliable address

information can also be attributed, in part, to aliens’ failure to report

changes of address to the INS. Since INS does little to actively publicize

the requirement, aliens may not know of the requirement and may not file

the notification. Alternatively, aliens may know of the requirement and

choose not to file the notification. INS is not in a position to enforce the

penalty, and aliens who knowingly do not file change of address

notifications are not likely to face any adverse consequences. When aliens

file the notification, INS may have unreliable address information because

it lacks adequate procedures and controls to ensure that aliens’ address

information is processed properly so that all automated databases are

updated.

Aliens cannot comply with the requirement to file a change of address

notification if they are not aware of the need to file or if they lack ready

access to the form. To promote compliance with the change of address

notification requirement, INS needs to make aliens aware that the

requirement exists. However, according to INS officials, INS does not

publicize the requirement, and INS does not inform aliens of the

requirement when they enter the country. Furthermore, for those aliens

who know about and seek to comply with the filing requirement, INS has

not made the Form AR-11 available at post offices as required by the Code

 22INS collected but did not process alien address reports in 1981.

23Not every alien is required to have an SSN.

Lack of Publicity, No

Enforcement of

Penalties, and

Inadequate

Processing

Procedures

Contribute to INS’s

Unreliable Address

Information

INS Does Not Publicize

the Address Notification

Requirement
Page 17 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

of Federal Regulations.24 According to a senior postal service official, INS’s

change of address notification forms are not available in post offices

because INS has not made arrangements with the U.S. Postal Service to

provide and distribute the form. INS provides the Form AR-11 at its field

offices, through its form centers, and on its Web site at www.ins.usdoj.gov.

According to INS officials, INS is not in a position to place aliens in

removal proceedings for failing to file a change of address notification

because their address records are not maintained in a manner that will

permit INS to certify that an alien has not complied with the law. Aliens

may be aware of the requirement but may have little incentive to comply

given that, based on our review of available data, INS does not appear to

have enforced the removal penalty for noncompliance since the early

1970s.

INS’s historical records from 1950 through 2002 do not provide the number

of aliens who were placed in removal proceedings for failing to file a

change of address notification. According to an official with the Executive

Office for Immigration Review, its records date from 1988 and contain no

cases where aliens were charged and placed in removal proceedings for

failing to file a change of address notification. A review of federal cases

and cases brought on appeal from the Executive Office for Immigration

Review to the Board of Immigration Appeals indicates just a few instances

where INS charged an alien with failure to file a notification of address or

change of address in a removal proceeding.25 We also found a few cases

where an alien was prosecuted for failure to give notice of an address or

change of address. 26

Senior INS investigators cited two reasons for INS’s lack of enforcement.

The principal reason cited was that INS’s change of address records are

 248 C.F.R. 265.1.

25For example, Matter of Winter, 12 I. and N. 638, (BIA, Feb. 9, 1968), Sevitt v. Del Guercio,

150 F. Supp. 56 (S.D. Cal. 1957).

26For example, U.S. v. Ushi Shiroma, 123 F. Supp. 145 (D. Haw. 1954), U.S. v. Ginn, 222 F.

2d 289 (3rd Cir. 1955). In addition, during the period of time when annual address report

requirements were in effect, we identified several Board of Immigration Appeals and

federal court cases relating to the enforcement of this provision. See U.S. v. Sacco, 428 F.

2d 264 (9th Cir. 1970), Patsis v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 337 F2d 733 (8th

Cir. 1964), Matter of S, 7 I. and N. 536, (BIA, Aug. 19, 1957), Matter of M, 5 I. and N. 216,

(BIA, May 6, 1953), Matter of B, 5 I. and N. 692, (BIA, Mar. 2, 1954).

INS Is Not in a Position To

Enforce the Removal

Penalty
Page 18 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

not maintained in a manner that permits the agency to determine whether

an alien has complied with the requirement. In order to place an alien in

removal proceedings, INS is required to certify that the alien did not

comply with the filing requirement by issuing a certificate of no record.

According to a senior official with INS’s Office of General Counsel, if the

certificate is to be legally sustainable, INS must be able to check all change

of address records to be certain that the alien did not comply. However,

INS lacks procedures and controls for maintaining complete and current

change of address records. As a result, INS cannot determine whether an

alien has complied and, therefore, cannot issue certificates of no record

with the required degree of certainty. According to a 1944 INS report, INS

was able to determine if an alien had complied with the change of address

requirement because it maintained all address verification cards within the

Alien Registration Division in headquarters. As a result, INS personnel

could review the change of address records to determine if an alien had

provided a change of address. If no change of address card for a specific

alien was in INS’s centralized file, INS could determine that it did not have

a record showing that the alien had reported a change of address. Senior

INS records officials said that it would be impossible to reliably

reconstruct years of change of address records in order to create a

complete, current, and centralized system of address records because they

could not be certain that some change of address records had not been

lost, misplaced, misfiled, or destroyed.

The second reason cited for INS’s lack of enforcement was that the

agency’s internal policy discourages enforcement of this type of case.

INS’s Operations Instructions provide internal guidance to its employees.

The Operations Instructions governing the enforcement of the penalties

for failure to comply with the reporting requirement states that

noncompliance shall not normally serve as the sole basis for initiating

prosecution or removal proceedings.27 In contrast, under the law,

noncompliance can be the sole basis for removal unless the alien can

establish that the violation was not willful or was reasonably excusable.

This internal policy has been in effect since March 8, 1972. According to a

senior INS investigative official, this policy may have been established

because INS could not reliably determine if an alien had or had not filed a

change of address notification. Senior INS investigative officials said they

interpret the instruction as preventing enforcement of the penalties.

 27INS Operations Instructions 265.1(a), TM 105 revised 11/17/82, p. 4341.
Page 19 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

When aliens do submit Forms AR-11, INS must update its automated

databases for the estimated 111,500 change of address notifications it

receives annually.28 However, INS lacks written procedures and automated

controls to help ensure that reported changes of address are recorded in

all automated databases.

INS has at least 16 different automated databases that capture alien

identity and address information.29 For example, when an alien enters the

country as a visitor, his or her name and intended address are to be

recorded in the automated NIIS. If the alien subsequently applies to adjust

his or her visa status, the application for adjustment is to be recorded in

the automated Computer Linked Application Information Management

System (CLAIMS 3). Consequently, an alien’s name and address may

appear in more than one INS automated system. In this example, if the

alien then moved and filed a change of address notification, INS would

have to update both NIIS and CLAIMS 3 to ensure that the most current

address information was recorded and that the address data across

different automated databases was consistent. However, INS does not

update all databases that contain alien address information and does not

have the ability to update address information in NIIS.

 28The Comptroller General’s standards for federal internal controls specify that control

activities should be established to ensure transactions are completely and accurately

recorded in a timely manner.

29Some of the automated databases that contain address information are: the Employment

Authorization Document System; Marriage Fraud Amendment System; Computer Linked

Application Information Management System 3 and 4; Deportable Alien Control System;

Re-engineered Naturalization Application Casework System; Refugees, Asylum, and Parole

System; Integrated Card Production System; Global Enrollment System; Arrival Departure

Information System; Enforcement Case Tracking System; Student and Schools System;

General Counsel Electronic Management System; Student Exchange Visitor Information

System; Asylum Pre-screening System; and the Nonimmigrant Information System.

INS Lacks Procedures and

Controls Needed To

Ensure Alien Address

Information Is Complete

INS Does Not Update Address

Information in All Automated

Databases
Page 20 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 4: INS’s Processing of the Form AR-11

Source: GAO’s analysis.

As shown in figure 4, INS’s prescribed change of address form is the Form

AR-11 that is to be used by all aliens to report their new address. Aliens

are to complete a Form AR-11 and mail it to INS headquarters in

Washington, D.C. Upon receipt, INS staff determine where each alien’s

file is located and forward the change of address card to the appropriate

INS office. INS does not create paper-based files for most nonimmigrant

aliens. Consequently, if INS headquarters staff cannot associate a Form

AR-11 with an alien’s file, the card is placed in a box and held until a

technician can do further research on them. These cards are not

forwarded to any INS office and are not used to update automated

databases. The forms that are sent to district offices or INS’s National

Records Center may not be used to update any database as there are no

written procedures or automated controls that require or would provide

for updating all databases. Change of address forms that are sent to the

service centers are to be used to update the CLAIMS 3 database. No other

databases that may also contain the alien’s address are updated.

Databases to 

be updated

Consults

Central Index System 

to determine

location of alien's file

INS

Headquarters

Form AR-11

Front

Back

Box under desk

(no file) None

INS Records Center

(inactive file) None

Service Centers

(pending benefit application) CLAIMS 3

District Offices

(active file)

None
Page 21 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 5: INS’s Processing of Other Change of Address Forms

Source: GAO’s analysis.

I-855

I-104

I-697A

INS location where 

form is to be sent

Naturalization applicants

Legalization and seasonal or replenishment

agricultural worker applicants

Alien's sponsors

Aliens who are required 

by the Attorney General 

to register their address

Unspecified

Unspecified

Asylum

Offices

I-865

1-800-375-5283 National Customer

Service Center

INS Service

Centers

Databases to 

be updated

CLAIMS 3

CLAIMS 3

CLAIMS 4

Re-egineered

Naturalization

Application Casework

System ( RNACS)

American Baptist

Church Class

Members

INS Service

Centers

Refugees, Asylum

and Parole (RAPS)

and
Page 22 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

In addition to the Form AR-11, INS has four other change of address forms

and a 1-800 telephone number that are generally to be used by aliens who

qualify or have applied for a specific immigration benefit. As shown in

figure 5, the different forms are to be sent to INS’s service centers or

asylum offices for processing. At the service centers and asylum offices,

some but not all automated databases are required to be updated with the

new address information.30 Consequently, for those aliens who submit a

change of address form, the consistency of their address information may

vary between or among different INS automated databases.

Irrespective of the change of address form that is used, all databases are

not updated because INS does not have adequate written procedures or

automated controls that require or provide for updating address

information in all automated databases in which the alien’s name and

address information appears. INS could establish automated controls such

as a single automated address database from which other INS databases

download alien address information. Alternatively, INS could establish

automated linkages whereby updating address information in one

automated database would automatically update address information in all

databases. In either case, INS would need to record the date that the

change of address was received in order to identify which address was

most current and to determine whether an alien had filed a change of

address within the required 10 days. Furthermore, INS’s written

procedures do not require all databases with address information to be

updated. INS has drafted but not yet implemented field office processing

procedures for the Form AR-11. These draft procedures do not require that

all automated databases be updated.

Potential alien address inconsistencies among INS databases may have

hampered DOJ’s efforts to locate aliens. For example, if any of the

4,793 aliens who were being sought for interviews by U.S. Attorneys had

submitted changes of address, their new addresses would not have been

recorded in the database that was used to search for their current

addresses. These aliens’ address information was provided to the Foreign

Terrorist Tracking Task Force by INS from the NIIS database that is not

updated when INS receives changes of address. Consequently, these

4,793 aliens’ address information was only as current as the date of their

last entry into the United States. In a similar example, the Alien Absconder

 30The majority of alien sponsors, who are to complete Form I-865, are U.S. citizens. Only

those sponsors who are aliens would need to have their addresses updated.
Page 23 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Initiative obtained address information on aliens who were ordered

removed but who failed to depart the country from INS’s Deportable Alien

Control System (DACS). As with the NIIS database, change of address

information submitted to INS is not used to update address information in

DACS. As a result, INS may have had current address information for some

of these aliens, but was not able to provide it because all INS databases

are not updated.

In April 2002, INS established an Address Issues Task Force to review and

assess how alien address information is processed. The task force

identified numerous issues regarding the capture, processing, and

recording of aliens’ addresses. In May 2002, the task force prepared a

White Paper that developed a concept of operations for handling address

information and recommended a multi-phased strategy to improve

operational efficiency. INS’s concept of operations includes capturing and

electronically storing alien address information in a timely manner,

providing access to appropriate personnel through a single facility that

provides easy sharing and updating of address information, and providing

clear direction to aliens concerning their responsibility to provide current

address information. To implement this concept of operations, the task

force recommended a short-, medium-, and long-term strategy including

the designation of a lead agency official for address issues, a reduction in

the number of change of address forms, making the updating of address

information a priority, issuing a request for information to identify best

practices, developing a single centralized address repository, and

developing compliance policies to monitor the process.

As of September 11, 2002, INS had accepted the task force’s

recommendations. The Executive Associate Commissioner for

Management was designated as the lead agency official for address issues,

an Address Issues Office was established, and the Commissioner approved

a Senior Level Advisory Group for address issues. INS has also taken the

first steps toward establishing a centralized address repository and plans

to implement the task force’s other recommendations. According to the

Executive Associate Commissioner for Management, INS has received

about 700,000 change of address notifications since July 22, 2002, when the

Attorney General announced the planned publication of a proposed rule

that, in part, restated that aliens are required to notify INS of changes of

address. To handle this unexpected deluge of change of address forms,

INS has made arrangements with one of its contractors to electronically

image and capture these forms. INS expects that the changes of address it

has received will form the basis for a new central address repository.

INS’s Actions to

Improve Alien

Address Reliability
Page 24 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

The Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires aliens

entering or residing in the United States to provide identifying and address

information to INS. If aliens comply with the requirement, INS should be

able to record and maintain an address history for each alien and locate

the alien if needed. If an alien fails to comply with the change of address

notification requirement, it can result in the alien’s prosecution for a

misdemeanor and removal from the country.

INS should have a practical, reliable system to ensure that it has current

address information for aliens in the United States who are required to

register and provide any address changes. However, INS has not taken

steps to ensure that aliens know about their responsibility to notify INS of

new addresses, does not have an adequate system for handling change of

address forms it receives, cannot determine whether aliens are in

compliance, and has not sought to enforce the removal penalty against

violators.

Since the events of September 11, 2001, it may be even more important for

the federal government to know where aliens are located. Without this

information, INS and law enforcement officials cannot quickly locate

certain aliens who could help with the nation’s anti-terrorism efforts or

who represent a national security threat. Because its alien address

information is unreliable, INS has had numerous difficulties locating aliens

who represented a national security threat or who could help with the

nation’s anti-terrorism efforts.

There are several steps that INS can take to begin the process of

improving its system for maintaining alien address information. These

involve implementing a publicity campaign to make more aliens aware of

their responsibilities; making arrangements with the U.S. Postal Service to

make forms available in post offices; establishing internal controls for

ensuring that data from aliens’ change of address forms are consistent in

all automated databases and permit the issuance of a certificate of no

record; and clarifying internal guidance to establish that noncompliance

can be the sole basis for removal. INS has begun to take action to

implement the Address Issues Task Force recommendations that will help

to improve INS’s alien address information. As of October 2002, INS had

designated a lead agency official for address issues. Furthermore, INS

planned to reduce the number of change of address forms, make the

updating of address information a priority, issue a request for information

to identify best practices, develop a centralized address repository, and

develop compliance policies to monitor the process.

Conclusions
Page 25 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Taking these steps should help improve the reliability of INS’s address

information, but they would not likely result in a system that would allow

INS to locate all aliens. To a large extent, the accuracy and reliability of

INS’s address information is contingent on aliens’ compliance. It is

reasonable to assume that INS will never be able to know where every

alien is located at any point in time because some aliens who are in the

United States illegally may not want INS to know where they are and,

therefore, will not likely comply with the address reporting requirement. It

is also likely that some aliens will not know about the requirement or may

simply forget to file the forms. Moreover, for INS to maintain a reliable

system that is based solely on alien self-reporting would seem an almost

impossible task without a significant infusion of resources. There may be

alternative cost-effective approaches for obtaining or assembling more

complete and accurate alien address information, particularly for those

aliens who do not comply with the change of address notification

requirement, that meets the needs of INS and the law enforcement

community. These approaches include, but are not limited to, conducting a

nationwide alien address registration pursuant to the Attorney General’s

discretionary authority, requesting legislative reinstatement of the alien

address reporting program, matching INS address data with those of

federal and/or state agencies, and purchasing address information from

commercially available sources. These approaches may expedite the

acquisition and/or reduce the cost of acquiring complete and reliable alien

address information.

In order to promote compliance with the change of address notification

requirements through publicity and enforcement and to improve the

reliability of its alien address data, we recommend that the Attorney

General direct the INS Commissioner to:

• Identify and implement an effective means to publicize the change of

address notification requirement nationwide. As part of its publicity

effort, INS should make sure that aliens have information on how to

comply with this requirement, including where information may be

available and the location of change of address forms.

• Develop procedures for distributing change of address forms to include

making arrangements with the U.S. Postal Service to provide for

placing change of address forms in all post offices, as required by the

Code of Federal Regulations.

Recommendations

for Executive Action
Page 26 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

• Establish written procedures and controls to ensure that alien address

information in all automated databases is complete, consistent,

accurate, and current.

• In connection with updating automated databases, establish

procedures and controls that permit INS to verify receipts of change of

address records and issue a certificate of no record, when aliens do not

comply with the change of address notification requirement.

• Revise INS’s operating instructions to make clear that noncompliance

with address reporting requirements can be the sole basis for removal,

as provided at 8 U.S.C. 1306(b).

• Provide a field on change of address forms that an alien can use to

report a SSN or indicate that they do not have one, with the appropriate

notifications and safeguards required by law.

• Evaluate alternative approaches and their associated costs for

obtaining or assembling complete alien address information,

particularly for those aliens who do not comply with the change of

address notification requirement.

DOJ’s Acting Assistant Attorney General for Administration provided us

with written comments on a draft of this report. In its comments, DOJ

generally concurred with five of our seven recommendations and will

proceed in accordance with them. Specifically, DOJ agreed to publicize

address notification requirements; widely distribute change of address

forms, which would include U.S. post offices; establish procedures and

controls to permit INS to enforce the penalty provisions for

noncompliance with the change of address notification requirement; revise

INS’s internal operating instructions; and provide for aliens to report their

Social Security number or indicate they do not have one on the change of

address form. DOJ also described actions it has already taken and some of

the more significant constraints in proceeding with the recommendations

we proposed.

The constraints DOJ cited included (1) the need to revise the change of

address form and renegotiate an agreement with the U.S. Postal Service

before distributing the forms; (2) the need to develop a comprehensive

address file system to ensure that record keeping will support removal

proceedings, and (3) the likelihood that revising internal operating

instructions will not result in additional criminal prosecutions for failing to

Agency Comments

and Our Evaluation
Page 27 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

file a change of address notice because U.S. Attorneys generally decline to

prosecute minor offenses.

We recognize that there are practical and time sequential considerations

associated with implementing our recommendations; however, these

considerations should not obviate the need to improve the government’s

ability to locate aliens by increasing the reliability of INS’s alien address

information. We agree that change of address forms should be revised

before they are distributed and that an agreement with the U.S. Postal

Service needs to be reached before the forms can be placed in post offices.

We further agree that INS’s alien address records need to be complete,

consistent, accurate, and current before they can reasonably be expected

to support removal proceedings. Also, we would not expect an increase in

criminal prosecutions for failing to file a change of address notice.

However, INS investigative officials viewed the revision of INS’s internal

operating instructions as a necessary condition precedent to placing

noncomplying aliens in removal proceedings. We view these

considerations not as constraints but as reasonable steps that must be

taken to implement our recommendations.

DOJ did not comment on our recommendations to (1) establish written

procedures and controls to ensure that alien address information in all

automated databases is complete, consistent, accurate, and current or

(2) evaluate alternative approaches and their associated costs for

obtaining or assembling complete alien address information, particularly

for those aliens who do not comply with the change of address notification

requirement.

DOJ provided us with technical comments, which we incorporated in the

report as appropriate. DOJ’s comments are reproduced in appendix III.

We are sending copies of the report to the Chairmen and Ranking Minority

Members of the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary; the

Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee on

Immigration, Senate Committee on the Judiciary; the Ranking Minority

Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, House

Committee on the Judiciary; the Attorney General; the Commissioner of

INS; the Director of the FBI; the Director of the Secret Service; the

Director of the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force; the Director of the

Office of Management and Budget; the Director of the Office of Homeland

Security; and other interested parties. We will also make copies available
Page 28 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

to others upon request. In addition, the report will be available at no

charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staffs have any questions about this report, please contact

Evi Rezmovic or me at (202) 512-8777. Key contributors to this report are

listed in appendix IV.

Richard M. Stana

Director, Justice Issues
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 29 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

To determine the statutory framework that requires aliens to report their

addresses and any changes, and to provide historical background

information on prior alien registration requirements and programs, we

reviewed laws, regulations, and Immigration and Naturalization Service

(INS) publications and reports, including 8 U.S.C. 1301-1306 from 1940 to

2002, 8 C.F.R. 264-5; INS Annual Reports from 1941 to 1982; the

Administrative History of the INS During World War II; a 1943 Report to

the Attorney General on Alien Registration; a 1944 Report of Survey of the

Alien Registration Division; the INS Monthly Review from May 1944 to

April 1952; the I&N Reporter from January 1956 to Winter 1977-19781

; the

INS Information Bulletin from August 22, 1951, through January 28,

1953; INS’s Operating Instructions from April 19, 1954, to January

2002; and INS’s internal publicity and operation files for the Alien Address

Report Program for 1977 through 1982. We reviewed prior reports on alien

address information issued by the Congressional Research Service, the

Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General, and us. We

interviewed a representative of the U.S. Postal Service to determine if

change of address forms were available in post offices. We also observed

and documented the processing of change of address forms in INS

headquarters, reviewed documentation from a 1995 INS task force that

was responsible for identifying ways to improve the change of address

program, and interviewed INS records and computer managers and senior

representatives of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.

To determine whether INS’s alien address information can be used to

reliably locate aliens in the United States, we reviewed documentation and

interviewed senior investigators in INS’s National Security Unit and the

San Diego District and senior representatives from the Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI), the Secret Service, and the Foreign Terrorist Tracking

Task Force. We did not independently review the accuracy and reliability

of INS’s databases, nor did we independently review the task forces’

attempts to locate aliens. We also did not independently verify the data

provided to us by (1) INS on the numbers of alien absconders who were

sought and apprehended, and (2) the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys

on the numbers of nonimmigrants who were sought, had departed the

country, or who were located and interviewed.

 1

In 1976, the I&N Reporter was renamed the “INS Reporter.”

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 30 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

To identify the principal factors affecting the reliability of INS’s alien

address information, we developed audit findings by analyzing the

information we obtained during the review.

We performed our work from October 2001 through September 2002 in

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 31 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

From 1940 through 1944, INS’s Alien Registration Division administered

the registration provisions of the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The act

required all aliens, except for foreign government officials and their

families, to be registered and fingerprinted. In 1950, the Congress

established an annual address reporting requirement for resident aliens

that was expanded in 1952 to cover all aliens who were required to be

registered. INS assigned responsibility for the Alien Address Report

Program to the Records Division, which administered the program until it

was ended in 1981.

In implementing the Alien Registration Act of 1940, INS sought to create

an inventory of aliens in the United States to include their locations and to

maintain current address information. Beginning August 27, 1940, INS, in

cooperation with the Post Office Department, registered and fingerprinted

aliens in the United States who were required to register. As of December

31, 1940, 4,921,452 aliens had been registered. Aliens in the United States

were required to submit (1) an official registration form, which contained

information such as name, country of birth, address, occupation, and

immigration status, and (2) a fingerprint card. INS reviewed the

registration documents and if they were found acceptable, a registration

receipt card bearing the individual number, name, and address of the

registrant was issued and mailed. Fingerprint cards were forwarded to the

FBI to identify aliens with criminal records. INS considered the

requirement that resident aliens notify of a change of address within

5 days to be important because it provided the only statutory method for

keeping these aliens’ locations current. As of February 1, 1943, INS

received about 1,850,000 notifications of changes of address. In a

1943 report to the Attorney General on alien registration, the INS

Commissioner reported that the information collected by the Alien

Registration Program had been essential to preserving the nation’s

internal security.

In 1944, the Commissioner requested that a survey of the Alien

Registration Division be undertaken to determine if the division’s

functions should be integrated into the central office or should continue

to be maintained separately. The survey concluded that it would be more

efficient to integrate the division’s functions into the central office, and

accordingly, the division was eliminated on December 31, 1944. One of the

reasons cited for eliminating the division was the inability to maintain

current address information for aliens who were in the country. According

to the survey report, an estimated 5 to 40 percent of the registered aliens

had moved without filing changes of address as required, and the U.S.

Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

The Alien Registration

Program of 1940
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 32 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Attorneys had refused to prosecute these violations. In addition, the act

did not require that aliens’ deaths and departures be reported to the Alien

Registration Division and many were not reported. As a result, the survey

concluded that it was impossible to maintain a file of aliens’ address cards

with any degree of accuracy.

Prior to 1950, INS had reported that aliens’ address information, gathered

during the 1940 registration, was out of date because aliens were not filing

change of address notices, as required. In 1950, the Congress required all

resident aliens in the United States on January 1st to report their

addresses to INS. In addition, resident aliens were still required to file a

change of address notice if they moved. INS established the Alien Address

Report Program. INS created Alien Address Report Cards (Form I-53) and

placed them in about 42,000 U.S. Post Offices and 450 Immigration offices

nationwide, so aliens could report their addresses to INS. In 1951, nearly

2.4 million resident aliens reported. Of that number, INS identified over

50,000 individual aliens for whom INS had no record. These cases were

referred to INS field offices for investigation. INS also found a fairly high

incidence of noncompliance by comparing the address reports to alien

records at the central office. INS referred at least 120,000 noncompliance

cases to its field offices for investigation. By 1980, aliens who annually

reported their addresses to INS had increased to nearly 5.4 million.1

 Figure

6 shows the number of annual address reports INS received between

1951 and 1980, the last year that complete data were available before the

annual address reporting requirement was eliminated.

 1

INS received annual address reports in 1981, but did not process them.

The Alien Address

Report Program of

1950
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 33 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 6: Number of Aliens Who Reported During the Alien Address Report Program, 1951-1980

Note: The 1952 data are approximate.

Source: GAO’s analysis of INS’s data.

According to congressional and internal INS documentation, the program

was eliminated (1) to save between $542,000 and $800,000, (2) because the

address information was used primarily for statistical purposes, and

(3) because the Office of Management and Budget wanted to reduce the

public’s annual reporting burden by about 470,000 person-hours.

5.4

5.1 5 5

4.8 4.7

4.6 4.6

4.4

4.2 4.2

4

3.9

3.7

3.5

3.4

3.3 3.2

3.1 3 3

2.9 2.9 2.8

2.6

2.5 2.5 2.5 2.4 2.4

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963

Millions 

1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1980

Years
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 34 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Both the Alien Registration Program and the Alien Address Report

Program shared common program elements, including (1) publicizing the

program requirements nationwide, (2) centralizing management

responsibility, (3) centralizing nationwide alien address information which

provided the capability to conduct searches, and (4) investigating cases of

alleged violations of the requirements to file a change of address

notification and/or an annual address report.

INS had about 2 months to publicize the registration requirements from

the time the law was enacted on June 28, 1940, until registration

commenced on August 27, 1940. In congressional testimony, the Director

of the Alien Registration Division said that government and private

organizations conducted an educational campaign to publicize the

registration requirements. Furthermore, according to the Director, the

education effort was deemed to be effective because most aliens were

found to have registered. In many cases, those who failed to register

misunderstood the requirement.

For the Alien Address Report Program, INS undertook extensive

publication of the filing requirements each year. Through a memorandum

of understanding with the U.S. Postal Service, INS placed forms and signs

in about 42,000 post offices nationwide to instruct aliens about the annual

address reporting requirement. In addition, as shown in figure 7, the Post

Office Department cancelled postage stamps with a cancellation that read,

“Aliens must report their addresses during January.” Further, INS placed

public service advertisements on radio and television to remind aliens of

the annual filing requirement. INS also prepared a poster to remind aliens

of the reporting requirement and placed it in railroad, airline, and bus

terminals. According to an INS official who worked in the program, the

nationwide publicity was responsible for ensuring that there was broad

public awareness that aliens were required to report their addresses to INS

during January of each year.

Alien Registration

Programs Shared

Common Program

Elements

Program Requirements

Were Publicized

Nationwide
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 35 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 7: The Post Office Department Cancelled Stamps with a Reminder That Aliens Must Report Their Addresses

Note: This is a copy of the original envelope; however, the name and return address have been

redacted for privacy reasons.

Source: Provided courtesy of John Hotchner, Past President, American Philatelic Society.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 36 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Figure 8: INS’s 1953 Sign Placed in Post Offices Instructing Aliens to Report Their Addresses

Source: GAO photograph of the original in the INS History Office Library.

To administer the provisions of the Alien Registration Act, INS established

the Alien Registration Division, which was responsible for managing all

aspects of the alien registration program. The four principal objectives of

the division were to

• develop and maintain an index of information on aliens,

• verify the accuracy of information provided by aliens,

• maintain the currency of the records, and

• produce requested or required data.

The Alien Registration Division received and processed the forms required

by the act. Registration forms were inspected upon arrival and, if they

were complete, they were numbered, coded, and microfilmed for

Program Responsibility

and Data Were Centralized
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 37 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

preservation. On December 31, 1944, the Alien Registration Division was

disbanded, and the alien registration files were forwarded to INS’s field

offices.

In 1950, when INS established the Alien Address Report Program, it placed

responsibility for administering the program in the office with

responsibility for records administration. This office, the Records,

Administration and Information Branch, was responsible for receiving and

processing all annual reports and responding to inquiries from within and

outside the agency. By 1978, INS had automated the processing of the

annual address reports using a contractor.

Requiring all aliens to register in 1940 was intended to enable the

government to obtain comprehensive and detailed information on all

noncitizens in the United States for the first time in the history of the

nation. The nationwide information could be searched using different

criteria and was used by INS for purposes such as conducting background

checks on naturalization applicants. According to an internal INS report,

prior to alien registration, INS was hampered in these investigations by a

lack of sufficient information. The alien registration information remedied

this situation. In addition to using the data for their own purposes, INS

began receiving war time requests for information from other federal

agencies. However, before information could be released, it required the

approval of the Attorney General as the act required that all registration

information be kept confidential.

Examples of the requests that INS received and were granted by the

Attorney General are shown in table 1.

Alien Registration

Information Was

Searchable
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 38 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Table 1: Examples of Requests for Alien Registration Data INS Approved and Their

Intended Use

Requesting agency Intended use

Treasury Department Freeze funds of aliens with enemy

nationalities

Federal Communications Commission Identify licensed radio operators

Civil Aeronautics Board Identify alien pilots

Selective Service System Identify aliens who failed to register for

the draft

War and Navy Departments Identify aliens applying for employment

in wartime industries

Office of Export Control and Defense Board Identify aliens engaged in exporting

Securities and Exchange Commission Identify aliens in violation of securities

acts

Note: Information on the date the specific request was made and the specific information that was

requested were not available.

Source: GAO’s analysis of INS data.

However, all requests for alien registration data were not granted. Table

2 shows some examples of requests that were denied. INS documentation

does not provide the reasons for the denials.

Table 2: Examples of Requests for Alien Registration Data INS Denied and Their

Intended Use

Requester Intended use

Welfare organizations Citizenship and nationality of persons applying

for aid

Relatives Locate missing relatives who were aliens

Creditors Locate alien debtors

Attorneys Divorce and/or custody proceedings

Prisoners of war Locate relatives

Note: Information on the date the specific request was made and the specific information that was

requested were not available.

Source: GAO’s analysis of INS data.

In cases where relatives were trying to find an alien, INS would notify the

alien that his or her relatives were seeking to locate him or her. They

would not release the alien’s location to the relatives. In a 1943 report to

the Attorney General on the alien registration program, the INS

Commissioner said,
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 39 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

“Primarily intended as a safeguard, the Act has made it possible to provide war agencies

and agencies concerned with the internal security of the nation with the specific and

essential information about individual aliens and groups of aliens. At the same time, it has

afforded the Government an opportunity to gather basic sociological data about our alien

population that has long been needed for legislative and educational purposes.”

As with the 1940 alien registration program, INS centrally received and

processed the alien address report program information. However, where

the 1940 registration program sorted punched cards using tabulation

equipment, the 1950 program eventually established an automated

database and entered nationwide address-related information into it, thus

enabling INS to readily conduct searches. INS collected information that

was used by agencies to locate aliens, identify alien migration patterns,

develop investigative leads, estimate the naturalization workload,

correspond with aliens, and plan resource allocation. As shown in

table 3, INS also received requests from the Congress and federal, state,

and local government agencies.

Table 3: Examples of Requests for Alien Address Report Program Data INS

Approved and the Intended Uses

Requesting agency Intended use

Congress About 100 requests per year for alien

data

State and local governments Requests for alien data

Department of Justice:

 Office of Special Investigations

 FBI

 Drug Enforcement Administration

 Department of Treasury:

 Customs Service

 Secret Service

Locate aliens

Department of State:

 Cuban/Haitian Task Force

Allocate state refugee funding, identify

unaccompanied minors, and validate and

correct refugees’ files

Department of Health and Human Services:

 Office of Refugee Resettlement

Allocate state and local refugee funding

Department of Commerce:

 Bureau of the Census

Estimate illegal alien population, identify

Cuban refugee locations, and track alien

migration

Note: Information on the date the specific request was made and the specific information that was

requested were not available.

Source: GAO’s analysis of INS data.
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 40 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

In 1941, INS organized the Special Inspections Division to enforce the

Alien Registration Act of 1940. The Division was responsible, among other

things, for identifying aliens who had failed to register or report a change

of address. However, enforcing the change of address provisions proved

difficult for INS because U.S. Attorneys generally declined to prosecute

the cases.

One potential method used by INS investigators to identify possible

violators of the change of address requirement involved mail that was

returned to INS by the Post Office Department. For example, INS mailed

registration receipt cards to aliens who had submitted acceptable

registration documents. Of about 5 million cards that were sent out,

480,000 were returned by the Post Office. Following a second mailing,

160,000 of the 480,000 were again returned by the Post Office. The

160,000 aliens, whose cards were returned, could have been investigated

as potential violators of the change of address filing requirement. INS

identified many violations of the change of address requirement; however,

U.S. Attorneys generally refused to prosecute the offenders. According to

the INS Commissioner in a letter to the Bureau of the Budget at that time,

“Although a penalty is provided for failure to notify change of address, practically every

United States Attorney has refused to prosecute unless it is shown that such failure was

willful. As a matter of fact, the majority of the United States Attorneys have issued blanket

waivers of prosecution in these cases and have requested this Service not to present them

unless it is shown that the violation was willful. During the calendar year 1943, some 7,488

investigations were conducted of aliens who failed to notify change of address; 4,287 such

cases were presented to the United States Attorneys, and only 19 convictions were

obtained. It is not possible to make an accurate estimate of how many registrants have

failed to report changes of address.”2

 According to the 1944 Survey of the Alien

Registration Division to the INS Commissioner, INS staff estimated that between 5 and 40

percent of the registered aliens had not notified INS of their new address.

INS does not appear to have enforced the removal penalty for

noncompliance since the early 1970s. INS’s historical records from 1950 to

2002 do not identify the number of aliens who were placed in removal

proceedings for failing to file a change of address notification. According

to an official with Executive Office for Immigration Review, their records

date from 1988 and contain no cases where aliens were charged and

 2

“Survey of the Alien Registration Division,” letter of Commissioner Harrison to E.B.

Wilber, Bureau of the Budget, March 6, 1944.

Change of Address and

Annual Address Reporting

Violations Were

Investigated
Appendix II: An Historical Overview of INS’s

Alien Registration Programs, 1940-1981

Page 41 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

placed in removal proceedings for failing to file a change of address

notification. A review of federal cases and cases brought on appeal from

the Executive Office for Immigration Review to the Board of Immigration

Appeals indicates just a few instances where INS charged an alien with

failure to file a notification of address or change of address in a removal

proceeding.3 We also found a few cases where an alien was prosecuted for

failure to give notice of an address or change of address.4

 3

For example, Matter of Winter, 12 I. and N. 638, (BIA, Feb. 9, 1968), Sevitt v. Del Guercio,

150 F. Supp. 56 (S.D. Cal. 1957)

4

For example, U.S. v. Ushi Shiroma, 123 F. Supp. 145 (D. Haw. 1954), U.S. v. Ginn, 222 F.

2d 289 (3rd Cir. 1955). In addition, during the period of time when annual address report

requirements were in effect, we identified several BIA and federal court cases relating to

the enforcement of this provision. See U.S. v. Sacco, 428 F. 2d 264 (9th Cir. 1970), Patsis v.

Immigration & Naturalization Service, 337 F2d 733 (8th Cir. 1964), Matter of S, 7 I. and N.

536, (BIA, Aug. 19, 1957), Matter of M, 5 I. and N. 216, (BIA, May 6, 1953), Matter of B, 5 I.

and N. 692, (BIA, Mar. 2, 1954).
Appendix III: Comments from the Department

of Justice

Page 42 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Appendix III: Comments from the

Department of Justice
Appendix III: Comments from the Department

of Justice

Page 43 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security
Appendix III: Comments from the Department

of Justice

Page 44 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security
Appendix III: Comments from the Department

of Justice

Page 45 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff

Acknowledgments

Page 46 GAO-03-188 Homeland Security

Richard M. Stana (202) 512-8777

Evi L. Rezmovic (202) 512-8777

In addition to the above, James M. Blume, Leah S. DeWolf, Jan B.

Montgomery, Ann H. Finley, Elizabeth Anne Laffoon, Leo M. Barbour,

Mary Catherine Hult, Kimberly A. Hutchens, Maureen R. Shields and Jay

Jennings made key contributions to this report.

Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff

Acknowledgments

Contacts

Acknowledgments

(440095)
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