Immigration Benefits: Fourteenth Report Required by the Haitian  
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (21-APR-06,		 
GAO-06-589R).							 
                                                                 
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 lawful 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 lawful 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 fourteenth report.	 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-06-589R					        
    ACCNO:   A52277						        
  TITLE:     Immigration Benefits: Fourteenth Report Required by the  
Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998		 
     DATE:   04/21/2006 
  SUBJECT:   Dependents 					 
	     Homeland security					 
	     Immigrants 					 
	     Immigration					 
	     Immigration and naturalization law 		 
	     Immigration information systems			 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     EOIR Automated Nationwide System for		 
	     Immigration Review 				 
                                                                 
	     Haiti						 
	     INS Computer Linked Application			 
	     Information Management System			 
                                                                 

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GAO-06-589R

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548

April 21, 2006

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

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

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

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

Subject: Immigration Benefits: Fourteenth 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 1998 1 that authorized certain Haitian
nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust their status to lawful
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 lawful permanent residence. The reports are to
contain a breakdown of the

1

Pub. L. No. 105-277, tit. IX, 112 Stat. 2681-538.

                    Page 1 GAO-06-589R Immigration Benefits

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 fourteenth report. 2

                                Results in Brief

Through March 31, 2006, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS), formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS), had received a total of 39,850 HRIFA applications and had approved
15,369 of these applications. 3 The Executive Office for Immigration
Review (EOIR) had 1,869 applications filed and had approved 709 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 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).

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

2

The 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 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.: Apr. 21, 2003); (10) Immigration Benefits: Tenth Report Required by
the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-04-189R
(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 17, 2003); (11) Immigration Benefits: Eleventh
Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998,
GAO-04-1030R (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 13, 2004); (12) Immigration Benefits:
Twelfth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of
1998, GAO-05-481R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 14, 2005); and (13) Immigration
Benefits: Thirteenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration
Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-06-122R

(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 21, 2005).

3

On March 1, 2003, INS was transferred from the Department of Justice (DOJ)
to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Within Homeland Security,
the adjudication of HRIFA benefits is the responsibility of USCIS.

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 March 31, 2006, USCIS data showed that it had received 39,850
HRIFA applications at its Nebraska Service Center, all of which had been
entered into CLAIMS. 6 The categories and numbers of these applicants are
shown in table 1. Through March 31, 2006, USCIS had approved 15,369
applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA.

Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and
Approved by USCIS, through March 31, 2006

Principal or Category of      Number of applications in       Number of    
Dependent    applicant        CLAIMS                          applications 
                                                                 approved     
Principal    Asylum                                    17,331        6,921 
Principal    Parolee                                    8,902        2,943 
Principal    Child without                              1,228          151 
                parents                                          
Principal    Orphaned child                               240           30 
Principal    Abandoned child                              481           34 
Dependent    Spouse                                     3,727        1,230 
Dependent    Child                                      7,536        3,964 
Dependent    Unmarried son or                             405           96 
                daughter                                         
Total                                                  39,850       15,369 

Source: USCIS data.

HRIFA Applications Filed with and Approved by EOIR

4

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

5

The Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (title XI of Pub. L. No.
106-553, as amended by title XV of Pub. L. No. 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.

6

Although March 31, 2000, was the application deadline for principals to
file applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA, there have
continued to be slight increases in CLAIMS in the number of principal
applicants. According to USCIS, CLAIMS data may be adjusted for various
reasons. For example, USCIS may determine that a principal's application
was rejected in error during the filing period that ended on March 31,
2000; or, a principal may have submitted the application to a field
office, and the application may not have been correctly routed to the
Nebraska Service Center. As USCIS becomes aware of such cases, it

enters them into CLAIMS.

Through March 31, 2006, EOIR data from ANSIR showed that 1,869 HRIFA
applications had been filed with EOIR, of which 709 had been approved for
adjustment of status. 7 Table 2 provides information on the categories and
numbers of HRIFA applicants and approvals.

Table 2: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Filed with and
Approved by EOIR, through March 31, 2006

Principal or Category of      Number of applications in ANSIR Number of    
Dependent    applicant                                        applications 
                                                                 approved     
Principal    Asylum                                     1,041          380 
Principal    Parolee                                      449          160 
Principal    Child without                                 95           37 
                parents                                          
Principal    Orphaned child                                16            6 
Principal    Abandoned child                               18           10 
Dependent    Spouse                                       163           75 
Dependent    Child                                         73           33 
Dependent    Unmarried son or                             14a            8 
                daughter                                         
Total                                                   1,869          709 

Source: EOIR data.

a

In our last report, GAO-06-122R, EOIR data provided as of the end of
September 30, 2005, showed a total of 15 applications in ANSIR for this
category. An EOIR official explained that the data in the ANSIR system was
changed from 15 to 14 applications because the ultimate relief granted in
one case was not HRIFA.

                       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
2006, 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. DOJ and DHS had no comments on the report.

Principal applicants who filed an initial application for benefits with
the Immigration and Naturalization Service on or before the filing
deadline of March 31, 2000, may renew their application for HRIFA benefits
with EOIR even after the deadline. Such cases, which would be entered into
ANSIR when the application is renewed before EOIR, account for increases
in the total number of principal applicants over time.

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) 5128777. The key contributors to this assignment were Evi Rezmovic and
                                 Vickie Miller.

Paul L. Jones Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues

(440505)
*** End of document. ***