Immigration Benefits: Twelfth Report Required by the Haitian	 
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (14-APR-05,		 
GAO-05-481R).							 
                                                                 
This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitian	 
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998 that authorized 
certain Haitian nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust
their status to legal permanent residence. Section 902(k) of the 
act requires the Comptroller General to report every 6 months on 
the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been	 
approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. The
reports are to contain a breakdown of the number of Haitians who 
applied and the number who were approved as asylum applicants,	 
parolees, children without parents, orphaned children, or	 
abandoned children; or as the eligible dependents of these	 
applicants, including spouses, children, and unmarried sons or	 
daughters. Reports are to be provided until all applications have
been finally adjudicated. This is our twelfth report.		 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-05-481R					        
    ACCNO:   A21781						        
  TITLE:     Immigration Benefits: Twelfth Report Required by the     
Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998		 
     DATE:   04/14/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Dependents 					 
	     Immigrants 					 
	     Immigration and naturalization law 		 
	     Immigration information systems			 
	     Immigration or emigration				 
	     National preparedness				 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     EOIR Automated Nationwide System for		 
	     Immigration Review 				 
                                                                 
	     Haiti						 
	     INS Computer Linked Application			 
	     Information Management System			 
                                                                 

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GAO-05-481R

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548

April 14, 2005

The Honorable Thad Cochran
Chairman
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate

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

The Honorable Jerry Lewis
Chairman
The Honorable David R. Obey
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives

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

Subject: Immigration Benefits: Twelfth Report Required by the Haitian
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998

This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitian Refugee
Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 19981 that authorized certain Haitian
nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust their status to legal
permanent residence. Section 902(k) of the act requires the Comptroller
General to report every 6 months on the number of Haitian nationals who
have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent
residence. The reports are to contain a breakdown of the number of
Haitians who applied and the number who were approved as asylum
applicants, parolees, children without parents, orphaned children, or
abandoned children or as the eligible dependents of these applicants,
including spouses,

1P.L. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681-538.

Page 1 GAO-05-481R Immigration Benefits

children, and unmarried sons or daughters. Reports are to be provided
until all applications have been finally adjudicated. This is our twelfth
report.2

Results in Brief

Through February 28, 2005, United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS), formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS), had received a total of 39,050 HRIFA applications and had
approved 13,045 of these applications.3 The Executive Office for
Immigration Review (EOIR) had 1,635 applications filed and had approved
568 of them. Details on the categories of the applicants and approvals are
provided in this report.

Background

Haitian applicants are to send their applications to USCIS's Nebraska
Service Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. A contractor at the service center is
responsible for processing the applications up to the point of their
adjudication by USCIS adjudication officers. An application may be
adjudicated at the service center or in a USCIS district with jurisdiction
over the area where the alien applicant resides. Generally, applications
that are complete and evidentially sufficient can be adjudicated at the
service center, according to USCIS officials. If an interview is required
or other issues need to be resolved, the application is to be forwarded to
the appropriate USCIS district, where the applicant can be interviewed and
the application adjudicated. Data on Haitian applicants are to be entered
in USCIS's Computer Linked Application Information Management System
(CLAIMS).

2The previous reports were (1) GAO, Immigration Benefits: Applications for
Adjustment of Status

under the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO/GGD-99-92R
(Washington, D.C.:

Apr. 21, 1999); (2) Immigration Benefits: Second Report Required by the
Haitian Refugee

Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO/GGD-00-25R (Washington, D.C.: Oct.
19, 1999); (3)

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

1998, GAO/GGD-00-122R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 14, 2000); (4) Immigration
Benefits: Fourth Report

Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998,
GAO-01-118R (Washington, D.C.:

Oct. 20, 2000); (5) Immigration Benefits: Fifth Report Required by the
Haitian Immigration Fairness

Act of 1998, GAO-01-651R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 20, 2001); (6)
Immigration Benefits: Sixth Report

Required by the Haitian Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-02-114R
(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 22,

2001); (7) Immigration Benefits: Seventh Report Required by the Haitian
Immigration Fairness Act

of 1998, GAO-02-600R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 18, 2002); (8) Immigration
Benefits: Eighth Report

Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998,
GAO-03-240R (Washington, D.C.:

Oct. 22, 2002); (9) Immigration Benefits: Ninth Report Required by the
Haitian Refugee Immigration

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

Tenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of
1998, GAO-04-189R

(Washington, D.C.: October 17, 2003); (11) Immigration Benefits: Eleventh
Report Required by the

Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-04-1030R
(Washington, D.C.: August 13,

2004).
3On March 1, 2003, INS was transferred from the Department of Justice to
the Department of Homeland

Security. Within Homeland Security, the adjudication of HRIFA benefits is
the responsibility of USCIS.

Page 2 GAO-05-481R Immigration Benefits

Haitian nationals who are eligible for HRIFA should file their
applications with EOIR rather than USCIS if they have (1) a proceeding
pending before the Immigration Court or the Board of Immigration Appeals
or (2) a pending motion to reopen or reconsider filed on or before May 12,
1999. Thus, Haitian nationals who are in deportation, exclusion, or
removal proceedings, and whose cases have not been administratively
closed, are to file their HRIFA application with EOIR, not USCIS.4 Data on
Haitian applicants are to be entered in EOIR's case-tracking system, the
Automated Nationwide System for Immigration Review (ANSIR).

The deadline for principal applicants to file an application for
adjustment of status under HRIFA was March 31, 2000. Dependents of
principal applicants have no application deadline.5

HRIFA Applications Received and Approved by USCIS

Through February 28, 2005, USCIS data showed that it had received 39,050
HRIFA applications at its Nebraska Service Center, all of which had been
entered into CLAIMS. The categories and numbers of these applicants are
shown in table 1. Through February 28, 2005, USCIS had approved 13,045
applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA.

Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and
Approved by USCIS, through February 28, 2005

Principal or Number of applications in Number of applications dependent
Category of applicant CLAIMS approved

          Principal                          Asylum    17,327           6,310 
          Principal                         Parolee    8,902            2,789 
          Principal           Child without parents    1,228              144 
          Principal                  Orphaned child     240      
          Principal                 Abandoned child     481      
          Dependent                          Spouse    3,616              962 
          Dependent                           Child    6,889            2,699 
          Dependent    Unmarried son or daughter        367      
              Total                                    39,050          13,045 

Source: USCIS data.

HRIFA Applications Filed with and Approved by EOIR

Through February 28, 2005, EOIR data from ANSIR showed that 1,635 HRIFA
applications had been filed with EOIR, of which 568 had been approved for
adjustment of status. Table 2 provides information on the categories and
numbers of HRIFA applicants and approvals.

4EOIR was not transferred to the Department of Homeland Security and
remains part of the

Department of Justice.
5The Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (title XI of P.L. 106-553, as
amended by title XV of P.L.

106-554) went into effect on December 21, 2000. This act amended HRIFA to
waive certain grounds of
inadmissibility for aliens applying for relief under HRIFA. Finalized
regulations implementing these

changes to HRIFA went into effect on June 4, 2002.

Page 3 GAO-05-481R Immigration Benefits

Table 2: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Filed with and
Approved by EOIR, through February 28, 2005

Principal

Number of applications in Number of applications

               or dependent Category of applicant ANSIR approved

           Principal                           Asylum     897             296 
           Principal                          Parolee     410             134 
           Principal            Child without parents      81              30 
           Principal                   Orphaned child      11               5 
           Principal                  Abandoned child      14               5 
           Dependent                           Spouse     142      
           Dependent                            Child      66      
           Dependent        Unmarried son or daughter      14      
               Total                                     1,635            568 

Source: EOIR data.

OBJECTIVES, SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

Our objectives for this report were to determine (1) the number and
categories of applicants
who filed applications with USCIS or EOIR and (2) the number and
categories of applicants
whose applications were approved by USCIS or EOIR. To attain these
objectives, we relied on
USCIS and EOIR to provide us with data from their CLAIMS and ANSIR
systems, respectively,
on applicants and the number of approvals. We assessed the reliability of
the data by
reviewing existing information about the data and the system that produced
them, and we
questioned agency officials knowledgeable about the data. We determined
that the data were
sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. We conducted our
work between March
and April 2005, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.

We provided the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security with a draft
of this report for
comment. The departments had no comments on this report.

We are providing copies of this report to the Attorney General and the
Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security and will make copies available to others
upon request. If
you have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202)
512-8777. The key
contributors to this assignment were Evi Rezmovic and David Makoto Hudson.

Paul L. Jones
Director, Homeland Security

and Justice Issues

(440396)

                    Page 4 GAO-05-481R Immigration Benefits
*** End of document. ***