Alien Registration: Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien Annual	 
Address Reporting Requirement Is Questionable (28-JAN-05,	 
GAO-05-204).							 
                                                                 
Since 1940, Congress has provided a statutory framework that	 
requires aliens entering or residing in the United States to	 
provide address information. By 1981, aliens who remain in the	 
United States for 30 days or more were required to initially	 
register and report their address information and then to report 
their change of address only if they move. In the months	 
immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11,	 
2001, federal investigators' efforts to locate and interview	 
nearly one-half of the 4,112 nonimmigrant aliens they attempted  
to contact were impeded by lack of current address information.  
Nonimmigrant aliens are defined as those who seek temporary entry
into the United States for a specific purpose, including those	 
aliens who are in the country as students, international	 
representatives, or temporary workers, or for business or	 
pleasure. Because of growing concern over the government's need  
to locate aliens, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry	 
Reform Act of 2002 directed GAO to study the feasibility and the 
utility of a requirement that each nonimmigrant alien in the	 
United States self-report a current address on a yearly basis.	 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-05-204 					        
    ACCNO:   A16440						        
  TITLE:     Alien Registration: Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien   
Annual Address Reporting Requirement Is Questionable		 
     DATE:   01/28/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Administrative costs				 
	     Aliens						 
	     Cost effectiveness analysis			 
	     Data bases 					 
	     Data collection					 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     Homeland security					 
	     DHS Visitor and Immigrant Status			 
	     Indicator Technology Program			 
                                                                 
	     INS Computer Linked Application			 
	     Information Management System			 
                                                                 

******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO Product.                                                 **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
******************************************************************
GAO-05-204

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO

                       Report to Congressional Committees

January 2005

ALIEN REGISTRATION

Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien Annual Address Reporting Requirement Is
                                  Questionable

GAO-05-204

[IMG]

January 2005

ALIEN REGISTRATION

Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien Annual Address Reporting Requirement Is
Questionable

                                 What GAO Found

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told us that while
implementing an annual address reporting requirement for nonimmigrant
aliens is technically feasible, such a requirement would increase the
number of reporting forms DHS would have to process. In turn, this
increase would raise form-processing costs from an estimated $1.6 million
to at least an estimated $4.6 million per year, according to DHS, which
does not include the cost of enforcing the annual reporting requirement.

The consensus of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who
investigate activities that may violate immigration law, was that a
selfreporting system would be of limited use in locating aliens who are
avoiding contact with the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do not wish
to be located are not likely to comply with an annual requirement to
self-report address information. Consequently, agents use other databases
to locate this class of alien as well as nonimmigrant aliens who may not
be aware of address reporting requirements. Public and private databases
that record information concerning benefits, an alien's department of
motor vehicle records, or credit bureau information are examples of
information sources that agents have used to locate nonimmigrant aliens.
Despite the unreliability of self-reported information, some agents did
recognize the possibility of limited enforcement benefits for implementing
an annual address reporting requirement, such as verifying that compliant
nonimmigrant aliens are still in the country and providing a basis for
detaining noncompliant nonimmigrant aliens. However, existing systems are
available for compliant nonimmigrant aliens to notify DHS of address
changes. Also, DHS already has the authority to detain all aliens not in
compliance with current change of address reporting requirements but has
seldom used the authority. Consequently, it is questionable whether the
usefulness of an annual reporting requirement would outweigh the cost of
implementation and enforcement.

DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical comments, which we
incorporated as appropriate.

Types of Database Systems Containing Nonimmigrant Alien Addresses

                 United States Government Accountability Office

Contents

    Letter                                                                  1 
                                  Results in Brief                          2 
                                Scope and Methodology                       4 
                                     Background                             4 
              USCIS Officials Believe Implementing an Annual Nonimmigrant 
              Alien Address Reporting Requirement Is Technically Feasible   9 
                Most ICE Agents Believe Annual Nonimmigrant Alien Address 
                        Reporting Would Be of Limited Utility              10 
                               Concluding Observations                     12 
                                   Agency Comments                         13 

  Figures

Figure 1: Evolution of Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting Requirements

Abbreviations

CLAIMS Computer-Linked Application Management System
DHS Department of Homeland Security
DOJ Department of Justice
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FTTTF Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force
ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement
INS Immigration and Naturalization Service
NIIS Nonimmigrant Information System
ORS Office of Records Services
USCIS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service
US-VISIT United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator

                                   Technology

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in
its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this
work may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the
copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material
separately.

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548

January 28, 2005

The Honorable Arlen Specter
Chairman
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. Senate

The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives

Since 1940, Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires
aliens entering or residing in the United States to provide address
information under certain circumstances. This information was
historically provided to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS),
which was abolished and whose functions were transferred into the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003. By 1981, aliens
who remain in the United States for 30 days or more were required to
initially register and report their address while in the country and then
report their change of address only if they move. In the months
immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,
Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators attempted to locate and
interview 4,112 nonimmigrant aliens by calling upon INS, as the federal
agency responsible for maintaining address information for aliens who are

  Results in Brief

in the United States, to provide current addresses for the aliens.1
However, federal investigators were only able to contact slightly over
one-half of the nonimmigrants they attempted to locate because of INS's
lack of current address information.

Because of growing concern over the government's need to locate aliens,
the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 directed us
to study the feasibility and the utility of a requirement that each
nonimmigrant alien in the United States report a current address on a
yearly basis. 2 To address this requirement, we reviewed available
documents concerning nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirements and
interviewed headquarters officials from USCIS3 and U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE).4 We performed our work between June and
November 2004 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.

DHS officials told us that implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien
address reporting requirement, while technically feasible, would add costs
with little return in benefits, given the unreliability of self-reported
address

1DHS's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) defined
nonimmigrant aliens as those who seek temporary entry into the United
States for a specific purpose. The alien must have a permanent residence
abroad (for most classes of admission) and qualify for the nonimmigrant
classification sought. The nonimmigrant classifications include foreign
government officials, visitors for business and for pleasure, aliens in
transit through the United States, treaty traders and investors, students,
international representatives, temporary workers and trainees,
representatives of foreign information media, exchange visitors,
fiance(e)s of U.S. citizens, intracompany transferees, NATO officials, and
religious workers. Immigrants are aliens who intend to permanently reside
in the United States. For a discussion of how address reporting
requirements have applied to nonimmigrant and immigrant aliens over time,
see GAO, Homeland Security: INS Cannot Locate Many Aliens because It Lacks
Reliable Address Information. GAO-03-188. (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 21,
2002), 8-11.

2Sec. 602, P.L. 107-173 (2002). For the purposes of this report, we define
feasibility as the technical capability to collect and electronically
store nonimmigrant alien annual address information. We define utility as
how useful the information would be in locating nonimmigrant aliens.

3The USCIS Office of Records Services (ORS) manages the current
nonimmigrant alien address reporting program. Nonimmigrant aliens are
required to mail change of address forms to a processing center in London,
Kentucky, where the information is scanned into and stored in the
Nonimmigrant Information System (NIIS).

4ICE is the largest investigative arm of DHS and is responsible for
investigating vulnerabilities in U.S. border, economic, transportation,
and infrastructure security.

information. According to USCIS officials, the NIIS system for processing
change of address forms could be upgraded to process the increased number
of reporting forms USCIS would have to process. In turn, this increase
would raise form-processing costs from an estimated $1.6 million to at
least an estimated $4.6 million per year, which does not include the cost
of enforcing the annual reporting requirement.

Sixteen of the 17 headquarters and field ICE agents we interviewed said
that implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirement would have limited utility in assisting them in locating
nonimmigrant aliens because the basis for annual registration is
selfreported information. According to the agents, on the basis of their
experience with nonimmigrant address reporting under current change of
address requirements, nonimmigrants who intentionally are not in
compliance with immigration or other laws or otherwise do not want to be
contacted by the government are not likely to accurately self-report their
address information to DHS. However, these nonimmigrants might still be
found using non-DHS information systems. Other nonimmigrant aliens, such
as those who may not be aware of address reporting requirements or forget
to file, might also be found through other existing systems. For
nonimmigrant aliens generally, agents say they have relied on databases
other than DHS's self-reporting system for accurate address information.
Public and private databases that record information concerning benefits
or an alien's department of motor vehicle records, credit bureau
information, or court filings are examples of information sources that
agents have used to locate nonimmigrant aliens. Despite the general
unreliability of self-reported information, some agents did recognize the
possibility of limited enforcement benefits for implementing an annual
address registration requirement, such as verifying that compliant
nonimmigrant aliens are still in the country and providing a basis for
detaining noncompliant aliens. However, they said existing systems are
already available for compliant nonimmigrant aliens to notify DHS of
address changes, and DHS already has the authority to detain all aliens
not in compliance with current change of address reporting requirements
but has seldom used the authority.

DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical comments, which we
incorporated as appropriate.

  Scope and Methodology

Background

To determine the feasibility and utility of implementing a requirement
that each nonimmigrant alien annually report a current address, we
reviewed available documents concerning nonimmigrant alien address
reporting requirements and interviewed headquarters officials from USCIS
and ICE. At USCIS headquarters, we interviewed senior officials who were
responsible for alien records management and benefit administration. At
ICE headquarters, we interviewed two senior officials who were responsible
for ICE compliance enforcement activities related to aliens. We also
interviewed 15 ICE Assistant Special-Agents-in-Charge, supervisors, and
special agents who are responsible for immigration enforcement activities
in their Detroit, Michigan; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California;
Miami, Florida; and New York, New York field offices.5 These offices,
according to DHS data, are located in geographic regions where almost half
of nonimmigrants likely to be subject to an annual address reporting
requirement reside. The results of our interviews with agents in these
five field offices may not be representative of the views and opinions of
those in other field offices nationwide. We also interviewed an official
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Foreign Terrorist
Tracking Task Force (FTTTF).

USCIS's ORS staff provided cost estimates for existing change of address
processing costs and for an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirement. We attempted to obtain supporting explanations and
documentation to verify these estimates, but were not provided information
on all. On the basis of our efforts to determine the reliability of the
estimates for which supporting information was provided, which included
verifying calculations and bringing any discrepancies we found to their
attention, we believe that they are sufficiently reliable for the purposes
of this report. We did not use cost estimates for which supporting
information was not provided.

Through initial registration and change of address notifications, all
aliens are to provide their identity and an address where they can be
located while in the United States.6 USCIS receives and maintains alien
address information for benefits administration and immigration law
enforcement,

5ICE personnel are referred to as agents in this report.

6The requirements for alien registration and change of address are
codified at 8 U.S.C. 13011306.

and can share this information to help other law enforcement agencies
identify and locate aliens for national security purposes.7

Generally, nonimmigrant aliens provide their identity and address
information at the time of their entry and during their stay in the United
States using 1 of 12 different forms. For example, nonimmigrant aliens
arriving in the United States are generally required to complete the
twopart Arrival and Departure Record (Form I-94). The first part records
nonimmigrant aliens' arrivals and includes the nonimmigrant alien's
address in the United States. The second part is to be surrendered when
nonimmigrant aliens leave the country. DHS is to match the first and
second parts of the Form I-94 to identify those nonimmigrant aliens who
have left the country. However, as we reported in May 2004 and DOJ's
Inspector General reported in 1997 and 2002, legacy INS lacked many Form
I-94 departure records, and as a result, INS could not identify all of the
nonimmigrant aliens who had left the country.8

Over the years, Congress established various requirements for immigrant
and nonimmigrant aliens to report their addresses while residing in the
United States. Currently, aliens are generally required to report their
change of address to USCIS 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. The alien can
be fined, imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or removed. Because legacy
INS did not inform aliens of change of address notification requirements
when they entered the country, in our November 2002 report, we recommended
that legacy INS publicize change of address notification requirements
nationwide.9 According to USCIS officials, as of November 2004 this
recommendation was not implemented because USCIS was in the process of
revising the change of address form used by aliens and did not want to
begin publicity efforts until the revised form was finalized. Figure 1
shows the evolution of nonimmigrant alien

7Benefits administration includes handling citizenship, adjusting the
status of immigrants to permanent residence, providing employment
authorization, and granting asylum.

8GAO, Overstay Tracking: A Key Component of Homeland Security and a
Layered Defense. GAO-04-82. (Washington, D.C.: May 21, 2004) and DOJ,
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).

9See GAO-03-188, 25-26.

reporting requirements, beginning with the establishment of the Alien
Registration Act of 1940 to the present, with the 1981 amendments marking
when annual reporting requirements of nonimmigrant aliens were repealed.

Figure 1: Evolution of Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting Requirements

Source: GAO.

aEliminated by regulation 8 C.F.R. 265.1 (1983).

bAn 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.

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

dThe 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.

Although Congress, in 1981, eliminated the requirements that all aliens
annually report their addresses and that nonimmigrants report their
address every 90 days, Congress, through various acts, reinforced the
importance of the government being able to identify the lawful entry of
nonimmigrants into the United States. Specifically, prior to the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress mandated that INS improve its
ability to identify nonimmigrant aliens who arrive and depart the United
States and who overstay their visas. The Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, for example, authorized the Attorney
General to establish an electronic student tracking system to verify and
monitor the foreign student and exchange visitor information program and
develop an entry and exit control system to collect arrival and departure
records for every alien entering and leaving the United States.10 After
September 11, 2001, the USA PATRIOT Act, enacted in October 2001,
re-emphasized the speedy implementation of an entry-exit system for U.S.
visitors.11 In August 2002, DOJ issued a rule that became effective
September 11, 2002, concerning the registration and monitoring of certain
nonimmigrants.12 Under this rule, DOJ imposed special requirements on
nonimmigrants from designated countries.13 For nonimmigrant aliens
arriving in the United States, these requirements included being
fingerprinted and photographed at the port of entry. The rule also
required nonimmigrant aliens to reregister after 30 days and annually. In
December 2003, DHS issued an interim rule suspending the 30-day and annual
reregistration requirements that were in effect prior to that date.14 DHS
determined that its United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator
Technology (US-VISIT) program and other new processes being implemented
would meet the national security needs.

Consistent with the above registration requirements, US-VISIT is part of
the U.S. security measures for all visitors (with limited exemptions)
holding nonimmigrant visas, regardless of country of origin. Specifically,
US-VISIT's program objectives include (1) collecting, maintaining, and
sharing information (including address data) on aliens who enter and exit

10P.L. 104-208 (1996).
11P.L. 107-56 (2001).
1267 Fed. Reg. 52584 (August 12, 2002).
13Subsequently, DOJ made aliens from additional countries subject to these
requirements.
1468 Fed. Reg. 67578 (December 2, 2003).

  USCIS Officials Believe Implementing an Annual Nonimmigrant Alien Address
  Reporting Requirement Is Technically Feasible

the United States; (2) identifying aliens who have violated the terms of
their visit; and (3) detecting fraudulent travel documents, verifying
traveler identity, and determining traveler admissibility through the use
of biometrics.

USCIS officials told us that it would be technically feasible to implement
an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirement. The officials
said that the current NIIS system for processing alien change of address
forms could be upgraded to facilitate the nearly fourfold increase in
processing volume that likely could result from implementing an annual
nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirement. USCIS currently
processes about 550,000 nonimmigrant change of address forms each year,
and the officials estimated that about 2.6 million nonimmigrants could be
required to report under an annual requirement.15

The officials estimated that an increase of over 2 million address
reporting forms would increase USCIS's current annual change of address
form processing costs from about $1.6 million to at least $4.6 million per
year.16 The estimate of the cost increase includes computer operations and
maintenance, printing of address reporting forms, and additional data
entry staff. USCIS's estimate does not include the potentially substantial
cost of enforcing the address reporting requirement, which would include
hiring, training, and compensating additional ICE agents.

USCIS is considering incorporating the current NIIS change of address
system into the US-VISIT program. On October 4, 2004, officials from USCIS
formally requested that DHS move responsibility for all alien change of
address registration from USCIS's ORS to the US-VISIT program. Although
US-VISIT officials told us that placement of

15ORS officials said that if an annual requirement was mandated, not all
classes of nonimmigrants should be required to report their addresses
annually. The officials believed that those nonimmigrant aliens who are
generally in the United States for short periods of time and move
frequently, such as tourists, should be excluded from the requirement, as
they are excluded from the current reporting requirement. Other classes,
such as students, temporary workers, and trainees, could be processed
under an annual reporting requirement, according to the officials.

16ORS officials estimated that in addition to the cost increases cited
here, approximately $1,000,000 in information system upgrades would be
necessary to process the increased number of address reporting forms.
However, the officials were not able to provide any supporting
explanations for this amount. Therefore, we did not include the $1,000,000
figure in the estimated cost increase cited in this report.

  Most ICE Agents Believe Annual Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting Would Be
  of Limited Utility

nonimmigrant change of address information responsibility within US-VISIT
might be a viable option, the program is not currently designed to monitor
aliens during their stay in the United States. These officials told us
that incorporating address change data into the US-VISIT program would
require a change in US-VISIT program requirements, including changes in
US-VISIT's budget and technical requirements. As of November 2004, DHS
officials had not made a decision whether to integrate address change data
into US-VISIT.

Sixteen of the 17 ICE agents we contacted in headquarters and in the field
said that implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirement would have limited utility in assisting them in locating
nonimmigrant aliens because the annual registration is based on
selfreported information.17 ICE agents in Houston, Texas; Los Angeles,
California; Miami, Florida; and New York, New York, responsible for
immigration enforcement activities said that when conducting
investigations, they do not use the NIIS change of address data currently
submitted by nonimmigrants to help locate nonimmigrants as part of their
investigations. They said that because the change of address information
is self-reported data, it is often less reliable than data from other
databases. According to the agents, nonimmigrants who intentionally are
not in compliance with immigration or other laws or otherwise do not want
to be contacted by the government are not likely to accurately self-report
their address information to DHS under an annual requirement. However,
these nonimmigrants might be found using non-DHS information systems.
Nonimmigrant aliens who comply with address reporting requirements or seek
DHS benefits might be found using existing DHS systems or other
information sources. Still other nonimmigrants who may not be aware of
address reporting requirements or forget to file might also be found using
other existing systems.

ICE agents said that they consider the data found in existing public
source database systems such as department of motor vehicle records,
credit bureaus, court filings, and Internet search engines that compile
address and other information to be more current and reliable than
self-reported change of address data housed in NIIS. Typically,
nonimmigrants are located through public source databases because they
have been involved

17Nonimmigrant aliens are required to initially register their address and
employer information with USCIS when they enter the United States.

in financial transactions, have driver's licenses, and may participate in
other activities (e.g., submitting an application to rent an apartment)
resulting in information that can be tracked by investigators. For
example, a nonimmigrant alien applying for credit from a financial
institution is required and has an incentive to provide accurate address
information. Because of data-sharing arrangements among financial
institutions and credit bureaus, the address information provided by the
nonimmigrant alien to the financial institution also is available through
other public source databases, according to the agents.

In some cases, nonimmigrant aliens find it to their advantage to keep DHS
apprised of any address changes. According to agents we contacted,
nonimmigrant aliens must provide correct and current address information
to USCIS to request benefits such as a change in immigration status from
visitor to student or from nonimmigrant to permanent resident status. The
DHS databases that house address information on nonimmigrants seeking
benefits are of some use for finding accurate address data. For example,
USCIS uses the Computer-Linked Application Information Management System
(CLAIMS) system to process requests for immigration benefits and enters
updated address information into CLAIMS. The agents said that,
consequently, they rely on CLAIMS as one source of nonimmigrant address
information within DHS. However, address information in CLAIMS and NIIS
are not linked in a manner such that an address change in one would update
an address in the other database. In our November 2002 report, we
recommended that legacy INS remedy this type of problem by ensuring that
alien address information in all DHS databases is consistent and reliable.
As of November 2004, this recommendation had not been implemented.18

Although almost all of the 17 agents we interviewed stated that
selfreported nonimmigrant alien addresses would not be helpful in locating
nonimmigrants, several agents described some possible benefits associated
with an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirement:

o  	According to one Los Angeles ICE agent, implementing an annual
nonimmigrant alien address requirement could be useful if biometric data
(e.g., fingerprints and digitized photographs) were included with forms
during the reporting process so that nonimmigrant alien registration forms

18GAO-03-188, 25-26.

could be traced to other DHS forms, such as visas, and also linked to a
biometric identifier. The agent stated that linking nonimmigrant address
information with biometric data included with forms, rather than with
names entered on reporting forms, would assist in ensuring accuracy of the
address information. However, current alien address notification plans do
not address the potential costs or the feasibility of implementing such a
biometric approach or any reengineering required to link any biometric
indicators gathered by US-VISIT to alien address systems.

o  	The FBI's FTTTF official we interviewed stated that an annual
nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirement could provide a useful
list of nonimmigrants the task force could refer to during investigations
of potential terrorists. If nonimmigrant aliens were required to report
their current address annually and within a specified time period (for
example, between January 1 and 15 of each year), the annual reporting
requirement could allow federal investigators to refer to a list of
nonimmigrants reported to be within the United States on the date the form
was submitted to DHS. Federal investigators would, consequently, be able
to use the annual address report as a source of data, supplemental to
other sources of address information, according to the official. It is
important to note that address information entered by nonimmigrants on the
I-94 entrance form or US-VISIT information, coupled with compliance with
the current change of address notification requirements, would provide
this information, making an annual registration requirement redundant,
assuming the alien provides accurate address information.

o  	Agents in ICE's Detroit, Michigan, and Houston, Texas, field offices
and one ICE headquarters official told us that violation of an annual
address registration requirement could be used to allow ICE, in the
absence of other charges, to temporarily detain nonimmigrant aliens to
allow for questioning regarding other potential crimes. However, as we
reported in November 2002, violation of the current address notification
requirements by aliens also provides a basis for temporary detention and
questioning, but historically legacy INS infrequently enforced address
reporting requirements.19

While implementing an annual registration requirement for nonimmigrants is
feasible, the consensus of the USCIS and ICE headquarters officials and

                                   Concluding

                                  Observations

ICE field office agents we contacted recognized that a self-reporting

19GAO-03-188, 17.

system would be of limited use in locating the group of aliens who are not
in compliance with immigration laws or otherwise do not want to be
contacted by the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do not wish to be
located are not likely to comply with an annual requirement to self-report
address information. Consequently, agents have used other databases to
locate this class of alien and have found such databases to be more
current and reliable than the existing self-reporting system. Potential
benefits cited by law enforcement agents, such as the ability to verify
that the nonimmigrant alien is still in the country and to provide a basis
for detaining noncompliant aliens, might be available with current systems
and law but have seldom been used. For these reasons, it is questionable
whether the usefulness of an annual reporting requirement would outweigh
the cost of implementation and enforcement.

Agency Comments 	We requested comments on a draft of this report from the
Secretary of Homeland Security. DHS reviewed a draft of this report and
had technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this letter to the Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security and interested congressional committees. We will also
make copies available to others upon request. In addition, the letter will
be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://wwww.gao.gov.

If you or your staffs have any questions about this letter, please contact
Darryl W. Dutton at (213) 830-1086 or me at (202) 512-8777. Key
contributors to this letter are Samuel Van Wagner, Ben Atwater, Grace
Coleman, Nancy Finley, and David Alexander.

Richard M. Stana Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues

GAO's Mission	The Government Accountability Office, the audit, evaluation
and investigative arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting
its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance
and accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO
examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and policies;
and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance to help
Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. GAO's
commitment to good government is reflected in its core values of
accountability, integrity, and reliability.

Obtaining Copies of The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO
documents at no cost

is through GAO's Web site (www.gao.gov). Each weekday, GAO postsGAO
Reports and newly released reports, testimony, and correspondence on its
Web site. To Testimony have GAO e-mail you a list of newly posted products
every afternoon, go to

www.gao.gov and select "Subscribe to Updates."

Order by Mail or Phone	The first copy of each printed report is free.
Additional copies are $2 each. A check or money order should be made out
to the Superintendent of Documents. GAO also accepts VISA and Mastercard.
Orders for 100 or more copies mailed to a single address are discounted 25
percent. Orders should be sent to:

U.S. Government Accountability Office 441 G Street NW, Room LM Washington,
D.C. 20548

To order by Phone:	Voice: (202) 512-6000 TDD: (202) 512-2537 Fax: (202)
512-6061

    To Report Fraud, Contact:
    Waste, and Abuse in Web site: www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm

E-mail: [email protected] Programs Automated answering system: (800)
424-5454 or (202) 512-7470

Congressional	Gloria Jarmon, Managing Director, [email protected] (202)
512-4400 U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7125

Relations Washington, D.C. 20548

Public Affairs	Paul Anderson, Managing Director, [email protected] (202)
512-4800 U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149
Washington, D.C. 20548
*** End of document. ***