Immigration Benefits: Seventeenth Report Required by the Haitian 
Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (16-NOV-07,		 
GAO-08-267R).							 
                                                                 
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 seventeenth report.	 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-08-267R					        
    ACCNO:   A78290						        
  TITLE:     Immigration Benefits: Seventeenth Report Required by the 
Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998		 
     DATE:   11/16/2007 
  SUBJECT:   Children						 
	     Dependents 					 
	     Immigrants 					 
	     Immigration					 
	     Immigration and naturalization law 		 
	     Immigration information systems			 
	     Naturalization					 
	     Program evaluation 				 
	     Refugees						 
	     Resident aliens					 
	     Automated Nationwide System for			 
	     Immigration Review 				 
                                                                 
	     Computer Linked Application Information		 
	     Management System					 
                                                                 

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GAO-08-267R

   

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November 16, 2007

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

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

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

The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Chairman
The Honorable Lamar S. Smith
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives

Subject: Immigration Benefits: Seventeenth 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 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 seventeenth report.^2

^1 Pub. L. No. 105-277, tit. IX, 112 Stat. 2681-538.

Results in Brief

Through September 30, 2007, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS), formerly part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS), had received a total of 41,370 HRIFA applications and had approved
18,886 of these applications.^3 The Executive Office for Immigration
Review (EOIR) had 2,098 applications filed and had approved 827 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).

^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), (13) Immigration Benefits: Thirteenth Report Required by
the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-06-122R
(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 21, 2005), (14) Immigration Benefits: Fourteenth
Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998,
GAO-06-589R (Washington, D.C.: April 21, 2006); (15) Immigration Benefits:
Fifteenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act
of 1998, GAO-07-168R (Washington, D.C.: November 9, 2006) and (16)
Immigration Benefits: Sixteenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee
Immigration Fairness Act of 1998, GAO-07-796R (Washington, D.C.: April 27,
2007).

^3 On 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.

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 September 30, 2007, USCIS data showed that it had received 41,370
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 September 30, 2007, USCIS had approved 18,886
applications for adjustment of status under HRIFA.

^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. Regulations
implementing these changes to HRIFA went into effect on May 31, 2001, and
motions to reopen immigration court proceedings for aliens made eligible
for HRIFA benefits by these changes had to be filed by June 19, 2001.

^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.

Table 1: HRIFA Applications and Categories of Applications Received and
Approved by USCIS, through September 30, 2007

Principal or Category of      Number of applications             Number of 
                                              in CLAIMS applications approved 
dependent    applicant                                                     
Principal    Asylum                           17,346                 7,254 
Principal    Parolee                           8,906                 3,089 
Principal    Child without                     1,230                   165 
                parents                                                       
Principal    Orphaned child                      241                    36 
Principal    Abandoned child                     481                    43 
Dependent    Spouse                            3,944                 1,633 
Dependent    Child                             8,779                 6,553 
Dependent    Unmarried son or                    443                   113 
                daughter                                                      
Total                                         41,370                18,886 

Source: USCIS data.

HRIFA Applications Filed with and Approved by EOIR

Through September 30, 2007, EOIR data from ANSIR showed that 2,098 HRIFA
applications had been filed with EOIR, of which 827 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 September 30, 2007

Principal or Category of      Number of applications             Number of 
                                               in ANSIR applications approved 
dependent    applicant                                                     
Principal    Asylum                             1149                   439 
Principal    Parolee                             496                   187 
Principal    Child without                       110                    45 
                parents                                                       
Principal    Orphaned child                       17                     6 
Principal    Abandoned child                      25                    11 
Dependent    Spouse                              196                    89 
Dependent    Child                                84                    39 
Dependent    Unmarried son or                     21                    11 
                daughter                                                      
Total                                          2,098                   827 

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 in October 2007, in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

^7 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 provided the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS)
with a draft of this report for comment. DOJ and DHS had no comments on
the 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 Nancy A. Briggs.

Richard M. Stana
Director, Homeland Security
and Justice Issues

(440670)

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