INS Fingerprinting of Aliens: Efforts to Ensure Authenticity of Aliens'
Fingerprints (Letter Report, 12/22/94, GAO/GGD-95-40).
This report examines the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS)
fingerprinting procedures for aliens applying for benefits such as
permanent residency and naturalization. GAO discusses what actions INS
has taken in response to the findings of a February 1994 report by the
Justice Department Office of Inspector General. GAO evaluates (1)
changes INS took or planned to take to ensure that the fingerprints
aliens submit to INS are their own, including the options that INS
considered to improve the integrity of the fingerprint process and the
future impact of automated fingerprinting identification systems; (2)
steps INS had taken to ensure prompt mailing of fingerprint cards to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and timely filing of criminal
history reports from the FBI; and (3) how INS followed up on fingerprint
cards rejected by the FBI because of illegibility or incomplete
information.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: GGD-95-40
TITLE: INS Fingerprinting of Aliens: Efforts to Ensure
Authenticity of Aliens' Fingerprints
DATE: 12/22/94
SUBJECT: Naturalization
Agency proceedings
Aliens
Eligibility determinations
Citizenship
Investigations by federal agencies
Crimes or offenses
Immigrants
Vital records
Computerized information systems
IDENTIFIER: FBI Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to Congressional Requesters
December 1994
INS FINGERPRINTING OF ALIENS -
EFFORTS TO ENSURE AUTHENTICITY OF
ALIENS' FINGERPRINTS
GAO/GGD-95-40
INS Fingerprinting Procedures
(183591)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation
IAFIS - Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
INS - Immigration and Naturalization Service
OIG - Department of Justice Office of Inspector General
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-259343
December 22, 1994
The Honorable Charles T. Canady
The Honorable Randy "Duke" Cunningham
The Honorable Hamilton Fish, Jr.
The Honorable Elton Gallegly
The Honorable Porter J. Goss
The Honorable Duncan Hunter
The Honorable Henry J. Hyde
The Honorable Bill McCollum
The Honorable Jan Meyers
The Honorable Susan Molinari
The Honorable Carlos J. Moorhead
The Honorable Dana Rohrabacher
The Honorable Edward R. Royce
The Honorable Christopher Shays
The Honorable Lamar S. Smith
House of Representatives
This report responds to your joint request that we examine the
Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) fingerprinting
procedures for aliens applying for benefits such as permanent
residency and naturalization. As we discussed in our July 14, 1994,
letter, many of your questions were addressed in a February 1994
Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (OIG) report.\1
Accordingly, we agreed to determine what actions INS had taken in
response to findings in the OIG report. Specifically, we agreed to
evaluate the
-- changes INS had taken or planned to ensure that the fingerprints
aliens submit to INS are their own, including the options that
INS considered to improve the integrity of the fingerprint
process and the future impact of automated fingerprinting
identification systems;
-- steps INS had taken to ensure timely mailing of fingerprint
cards to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and timely
filing of criminal history reports from the FBI; and
-- actions INS had taken to follow up on fingerprint cards rejected
by the FBI because of illegibility or incomplete information.
--------------------
\1 U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, Alien
Fingerprint Requirements in the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (Feb. 16, 1994).
RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
INS officials said to improve control over the fingerprinting
process, they developed plans to implement a certification program in
1995 for fingerprint providers. Under the proposed certification
program, INS plans to only accept applications from aliens that
include fingerprints taken by an INS-certified organization. As part
of the certification program, INS plans to establish procedures for
fingerprint providers, such as requiring aliens to provide proper
photo identification. INS plans to monitor fingerprint providers at
least once every 3 years to ensure that INS procedures are being
followed. According to INS, as part of its long-term plans to
address problems with fingerprinting, it plans to use an automated
fingerprint identification system that the FBI is developing to
electronically transmit information, which should reduce fingerprint
process time.
INS headquarters issued directives instructing district directors to
correct problems with the (1) timely mailing of fingerprint cards to
the FBI, (2) timely filing of the FBI's criminal history reports, and
(3) resubmission of rejected fingerprint cards. However, the
officials said that INS had not monitored the districts' progress in
correcting these problems. Our discussions with officials in three
district offices showed that these problems continued to exist in
varying degrees.
According to the OIG report, as well as the discussions we had with
INS officials in the three district offices, INS examiners sometimes
approved an alien's application because they assumed incorrectly that
criminal history checks have been completed if no record appeared in
the alien's file. However, the results for criminal history reports
might have been delayed or not timely filed. We found that under
INS' current procedures, examiners could not determine if FBI
fingerprint checks had been completed because, at INS' request, the
FBI returned a report only if a criminal history record was found.
The assumption is that no report means there was no criminal history.
According to INS district officials, without a control to ensure that
the FBI had completed a fingerprint check, instances have occurred in
which aliens with criminal history records have had their
applications inappropriately approved.
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
Aliens applying for permanent residency and naturalization are
required to submit completed fingerprint cards with their
applications.\2 INS is to send each fingerprint card to the FBI to
determine if an alien has a criminal history. Aliens with criminal
history records may be denied benefits depending on the severity of
the offenses. During fiscal year 1993, the FBI ran 866,313
fingerprint checks at a cost to INS of $14.7 million. In addition to
the aliens' fingerprints, the fingerprint cards are to contain
background information on the alien, such as name and date of birth.
Aliens applying for permanent residency or naturalization are to be
scheduled for hearings after they submit their applications.\3
According to INS officials, the hearing dates are to be set to allow
adequate time for the FBI to complete criminal history checks and to
return the results (for aliens with arrest records) to INS.
According to INS officials, aliens can have their fingerprints taken
at several locations including, private businesses, the offices of
voluntary organizations, police departments, and some INS district
offices. INS officials said that prior to the time of the enactment
of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, all INS offices
provided fingerprinting services for aliens requesting benefits.
However, according to INS officials, most INS offices have
discontinued fingerprinting services for a number of reasons,
including a lack of staff.
After INS accepts aliens' applications, clerks in INS' district
offices are to separate the fingerprint cards from the applications
and mail the cards to the FBI. According to the FBI, it checks the
fingerprint cards to determine if data on the alien's name, gender,
date of birth, and the originating INS district office have been
completed. If any of the information is missing, the FBI rejects the
card and returns it to the originating INS office, if known, with an
explanation for the rejection.
If the background information on the fingerprint card is complete,
the FBI checks the fingerprints against its criminal record history
database, which contains the names of over 30 million people. If a
match is found, the criminal history record is attached to the
fingerprint card and mailed to the INS district office that requested
the check.\4 At the request of INS, the FBI does not notify INS if no
criminal history record was found.
The FBI rejects fingerprint cards if one or more of the prints are
illegible and returns the rejected cards to INS offices with an
explanation for their rejection. Even if the fingerprints are
illegible, the FBI will run a name check comparing the aliens' name,
including background information, to the names in its criminal
history database. If no positive identification is found, the
rejected fingerprint card is returned to the INS requesting district
office. INS officials are to submit a new fingerprint card to the
FBI if the original fingerprint card is rejected.
According to the FBI, it takes about 10 to 14 days to complete a name
and fingerprint check for INS (from its receipt of the fingerprint
card to the mailing of the results to INS). According to INS
officials, INS offices usually receive rejected fingerprint cards or
criminal history reports in the mail room. The cards are then taken
to the Examinations Branch or Records Department, where they are to
be placed in the aliens' files. Criminal history reports are to be
placed in the aliens' files before their hearings with INS examiners.
INS offices are to allow at least 60 days from the date an alien
submits an application until the scheduled hearing date to allow the
FBI adequate time to complete a criminal records check, return any
adverse results, and allow INS to place those results in the alien's
file.
In commenting on a draft of this report, INS officials provided some
perspective on the significance of failure to check aliens'
fingerprints. According to INS, the ideal situation would be to
check the fingerprints of every applicant. Any fingerprint not
checked potentially belongs to a criminal or terrorist. However, INS
stated that the actual probability that a properly obtained and
checked set of fingerprints will result in an alien's application
being denied and the alien being deported is very remote. INS
pointed out that only 5.4 percent of fingerprint checks result in the
FBI having a record on the alien and only a small portion of the 5.4
percent result in an alien's application being denied. While INS
recognized that even a relatively small number of aliens should not
inappropriately receive benefits, it did not want to give the false
impression that a criminal or terrorist receives a benefit every time
a fingerprint check is not properly conducted.
--------------------
\2 According to INS, this applies to aliens between ages 14 and 79.
\3 INS charges a fee to process aliens' applications. The fee varies
depending on the type of application.
\4 If the fingerprints do not match, FBI officials said they destroy
the fingerprint card and do not send a record to INS.
OIG REPORT
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :2.1
The February 1994 OIG report stated that INS did not verify that
fingerprints submitted by applicants for naturalization and permanent
residency actually belonged to aliens who submitted them. The OIG
report also pointed out that INS examiners had approved applications
because they assumed that applicants had no criminal history records.
According to the OIG report, this occurred because the FBI criminal
history records were not in the aliens' files when INS examiners
adjudicated the cases. The OIG report also found that INS frequently
did not submit new sets of fingerprints to the FBI when the original
sets of prints were illegible.
The OIG recommended that INS (1) institute procedures to verify that
fingerprints submitted to INS by all applicants belong to the
applicants and (2) instruct district directors to ensure that
fingerprint cards are mailed promptly and criminal history reports
are placed in the aliens' files before final adjudication.
INS concurred with the OIG findings and recommendations. In May
1994, INS formed a working group to address problems identified by
the OIG. The group is composed of representatives from various INS
service components and advisers from the FBI and OIG.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
To achieve our objectives, we (1) discussed the fingerprinting
process with INS officials at INS headquarters in Washington, D.C.,
and INS' Baltimore, Chicago, and Philadelphia District Offices and
(2) reviewed INS records regarding changes to its fingerprinting
process. We also observed fingerprinting procedures at these
district offices.
We selected the Baltimore and Chicago District Offices because they
were included in the OIG report, and, therefore, we could evaluate
INS' responses. To provide perspective on the problems the OIG
identified, we selected a district office not included in the OIG
review. We selected the Philadelphia District Office because of its
proximity to Washington, D.C. Specifically, we evaluated INS'
actions and plans in response to the problems identified in the OIG
report, including the timely mailing of fingerprint cards to the FBI,
the timely filing of FBI criminal history reports, and the procedures
used to follow up on fingerprint cards rejected by the FBI. Further,
we discussed the future impact of automated fingerprinting
identification systems with INS and FBI officials.
We discussed FBI processing procedures for alien fingerprints
submitted by INS with FBI officials in Washington, D.C. We relied on
information in the OIG report and did not verify data provided by INS
and the FBI.
We conducted our review from July 1994 to October 1994 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards. We obtained
oral comments on a draft of this report from INS and the FBI. Their
comments are discussed in the agency comments section of this report.
INS PLANS CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
TO INCREASE CONTROL OVER
FINGERPRINT PROVIDERS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
INS' fingerprinting working group has recommended that INS implement
a certification program that would increase control over fingerprint
providers. INS headquarters is finalizing a new regulation to
establish and implement the certification program. INS expects the
regulation to be published by March 1995. According to INS, after a
6-month transition period following publication of the regulation,
INS will accept only fingerprints taken by organizations it has
certified.
Under the proposed certification program, all organizations, except
police departments and the U.S. military, who want to provide
fingerprint services to aliens will have to apply for INS
certification. Fingerprint providers will have to pay an application
fee (currently estimated at $370). Under the certification process,
INS will require that employees, volunteers, directors, and owners of
the organizations providing fingerprint services undergo fingerprint
checks to determine if they have criminal histories. Depending on
the results of the fingerprint checks, an applicant may not be
certified. If an application is accepted, INS will certify the
provider for 3 years.
INS plans to require certified fingerprint providers to inspect
aliens' photo identification and have aliens sign their fingerprint
cards at the time the fingerprints are taken. The proposed
regulation also will require fingerprint providers to be trained in
fingerprinting procedures by INS.
All approved organizations are to be given a stamp that is yet to be
developed by INS. The stamp is to serve as a method for notifying
INS that prints were taken by an approved provider. The stamp is
also to allow INS to identify problematic providers--such as
producers of large numbers of illegible prints.
INS plans to monitor fingerprint providers using INS district
employees to spot-check local certified providers to ensure that INS
procedures are being followed. Under the current draft of the
regulation, INS will have the authority to revoke fingerprinting
privileges if the agency discovers that a provider is not following
INS guidelines. INS plans to use the fees from organizations
applying for certification to pay for the monitoring program.
According to the draft regulation, INS will monitor one-third of all
fingerprint providers each year.
OPTIONS CONSIDERED BUT NOT
ADOPTED
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.1
INS considered other alternatives to the certification program. The
working group rejected the option of having the district offices do
the fingerprinting because of resource shortages and the potential
for overcrowding in the district offices. Other options included
using contractors, police departments, and voluntary groups. The use
of contractors was rejected because of potential difficulty in
managing nationwide or regional contracts. Using police departments
for fingerprinting was not considered feasible because many police
departments do not provide fingerprinting services to the public,
including aliens. Also, according to INS, some police departments
were believed to have a higher rate of rejections than other
providers. INS decided not to depend on voluntary groups because
there are not enough voluntary groups to do all the fingerprinting.
However, these groups may apply for certification.
ELECTRONIC FINGERPRINT
PROCESSING MAY BE A
LONG-TERM SOLUTION
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.2
INS said that its long-term solution to the fingerprinting processing
problems will be the use of electronic fingerprinting. In this
regard, the FBI is developing an Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (IAFIS) that will allow the electronic
submission and processing of fingerprints. IAFIS is expected to
dramatically reduce turnaround time for fingerprint processing.
IAFIS is not expected to be fully operational before mid-1998. INS
anticipates the use of IAFIS but will have to purchase hardware to
enable the system to transmit information electronically to the FBI.
According to INS, it is actively pursuing the use of its own
automated fingerprint identification systems to reduce fingerprint
fraud and processing time. Also, INS is closely coordinating its
efforts with the FBI to ensure compatibility and reduced rejection
rates.
TIMELY MAILING OF FINGERPRINT
CARDS AND FILING OF CRIMINAL
HISTORY REPORTS CONTINUE TO BE
PROBLEMS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
The OIG review of four INS district offices found problems with
timely mailing of fingerprint cards to the FBI and timely filing of
returned criminal history reports from the FBI. Our review indicated
that these problems existed in varying degrees in the three districts
we visited. Also, we found that INS examiners assumed a fingerprint
check had been completed if a criminal history record was not found
in the district office.
In the Chicago District Office, the OIG found that fingerprint cards
were allowed to accumulate for 2 to 3 weeks before they were mailed
to the FBI. As part of its review, the OIG only examined the files
of aliens who had arrest records to determine if INS was properly
filing FBI arrest reports in aliens' files. The OIG used an FBI list
of aliens who had criminal history records to identify which alien
files to review. The OIG found that 29 percent of the 271 files it
reviewed in 4 district offices lacked arrest reports. In the Chicago
District the OIG found that 78 percent of the alien files it reviewed
did not contain the criminal history reports at the time the cases
were adjudicated.
UNTIMELY SUBMISSION OF
FINGERPRINT CARDS
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.1
In a March 1994 memorandum to all district directors, INS
headquarters directed them to ensure that alien fingerprints are sent
to the FBI daily. INS also instructed district directors to ensure
that criminal history records received from the FBI are placed in the
alien files immediately.
Although INS headquarters instructed its districts to ensure both
timely mailing of fingerprints and timely filing of criminal history
reports, headquarters had not monitored the districts to ensure that
its policies were being properly followed. An INS official said that
in the past it was necessary for headquarters to follow up on its
directives to ensure that the policies were being followed.
The Baltimore and Chicago District Offices made some changes to
improve timely mailing of fingerprint cards. For example, Baltimore
district officials said that they recently began separating
fingerprint cards from naturalization applications and putting those
cards in the mail on the same day that the applications were
received. Chicago and Philadelphia district officials said that
their fingerprint cards may not have been mailed for 1 or 2 weeks.
Chicago District Office officials said they planned to rearrange the
routing of applications to expedite mailing of fingerprint cards to
the FBI.
In August 1994, the Baltimore District Office began a prototype
program in which aliens applying for permanent residency are to send
their applications directly to INS' Eastern Service Center in St.
Albans, VT. The Baltimore District conducts the hearings, and the
INS service center processes the fingerprint cards. Criminal history
reports are sent to the Baltimore office before the aliens' hearings.
According to a Baltimore district official, although the program is
new all indications are that it has resulted in criminal history
reports arriving before hearings.
UNTIMELY FILING OF FBI
REPORTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.2
In the three districts we visited, rejected fingerprint cards and
criminal history records were received in the mail rooms and
transferred to the Examinations Office for filing. However, district
officials and examiners at these three districts said that criminal
history reports were not always placed in aliens' files before their
hearings.
The criminal history report filing systems varied at the three
district offices. Chicago district officials said they were
reorganizing the filing system, working toward a goal of filing all
criminal history reports directly in aliens' files. However, at the
time of our review, Chicago was using two filing systems. Criminal
history reports were either filed directly in alien files or placed
in a central file. As a result, Chicago examiners had to review both
the alien's file and the centralized file of criminal history reports
before an alien's hearing to determine if the alien had a criminal
history record. Baltimore and Philadelphia District Office officials
said that criminal history reports were typically filed directly in
the aliens' files within 3 working days after they were received so
they would be available to the examiners during the aliens'
interviews.
Examiners at all three districts indicated that they had incidents in
which a criminal history record was not available when the examiner
conducted a hearing and granted the benefit to the alien. If
examiners become aware of an alien's criminal history record after
the initial hearing, the alien may be interviewed again depending on
the severity of the offense. This can occur after INS has granted
the alien benefits. If the results of the fingerprint checks
warrant, INS may rescind the previously granted benefit. The
examiners said that the fingerprint checks are important and noted
that about half of the time the information provided by the FBI
criminal history report is the only information they have about an
alien's criminal activity.
STATUS OF RECORDS CHECK MAY
NOT BE KNOWN TO INS
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.3
Examiners do not have any means to determine the status of an FBI
fingerprint check because, at INS' request, the FBI does not return
the results of all fingerprint checks. INS receives results only if
an arrest record is found. At the time of the alien's hearing, if
INS examiners do not find a criminal history report in an alien's
file and it is 60 days after the application date, the examiners
assume that a fingerprint check has been completed and that the alien
does not have a criminal history record. According to an INS
official, they do not receive negative responses from the FBI because
the district offices do not have enough staff to file FBI responses
for all aliens. According to the FBI, they could provide INS with
the results of all records checks in other formats (e.g.,
electronically), including those for whom it did not find criminal
history records.
SUBMISSION OF NEW FINGERPRINT
CARDS CONTINUES TO BE A PROBLEM
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :6
During fiscal year 1993, the FBI rejected and returned to INS 91,827
fingerprint cards, or 11 percent of all INS submissions, because one
or more of the prints were illegible.\5 The OIG determined that INS
district offices frequently did not submit new fingerprint cards for
those aliens whose fingerprint cards were rejected. Since INS failed
to submit new fingerprint cards, in a number of cases applications
were adjudicated on the basis of criminal history name checks but
without the results of the FBI fingerprint checks.
In April 1994, INS headquarters instructed district directors to
ensure that new fingerprint cards are submitted if the initial card
is rejected. However, according to INS officials at the three
districts we visited, these district offices rarely submitted new
fingerprint cards if the initial card was rejected.
--------------------
\5 The FBI also rejected an additional 4 percent of INS-submitted
fingerprint cards because descriptive information such as name, date
of birth, and/or INS office identifying number were incomplete.
CONCLUSIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :7
INS' decision to implement a certification program for fingerprint
providers with the proposed procedures for ensuring fingerprint
integrity, if properly implemented, should address the OIG's first
recommendation. The program should help ensure that the fingerprints
aliens submit with applications are their own. Further, INS plans to
periodically monitor the providers, which should help to maintain the
integrity of the fingerprint process.
INS headquarters had directed its district offices to timely submit
fingerprint cards to the FBI and file FBI criminal history reports in
aliens' files. However, there are problems to varying degrees in the
Chicago and Philadelphia Districts. Also, officials at the three
district offices said they rarely submitted new fingerprint cards if
the initial cards were rejected by the FBI. According to the OIG
report and INS officials, some aliens' applications had been approved
because the examiners did not receive, and therefore were not aware
of, aliens' criminal history records. They said that if the
examiners had been aware of the information contained on the criminal
history records the applications could have been denied.
INS had told the district offices to correct the problems but had not
monitored the districts' efforts to follow those instructions.
Without some form of monitoring, INS cannot be certain that the
district offices will correct the problems.
At INS' request, the FBI returned information to districts only if an
alien had a criminal history record or if the fingerprints were
rejected. As a result, INS was not notified if a fingerprint check
was successfully completed and no criminal record was found. If no
information was in the aliens' files or in a central location,
examiners assumed that the aliens did not have criminal history
records. As noted earlier, this assumption can be incorrect.
RECOMMENDATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :8
We recommend that the Attorney General direct the Commissioner of INS
to
-- monitor progress to ensure that districts comply with INS'
headquarters directives to submit fingerprint cards to the FBI
on a timely basis, file FBI arrest reports in aliens' files
immediately, and submit new fingerprint cards to replace those
that are rejected by the FBI and
-- obtain the results from the FBI of all its record and
fingerprint checks, including those aliens who do not have
criminal history records and make the results available to the
examiners before the aliens' hearings.
AGENCY COMMENTS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :9
On November 9, 1994, we obtained oral comments on a draft of this
report separately from INS and FBI officials. We met with INS
representatives, including the Acting Associate Commissioner for
Examinations, who is responsible for INS' adjudication of
applications which requires aliens to be fingerprinted. We also met
with FBI officials, including the Deputy Assistant Director of the
Criminal Justice Information Services Division, who responds to INS'
requests for criminal records checks of aliens. They agreed with our
findings, conclusions, and recommendations and provided
clarifications and technical corrections, which we included in the
report.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :9.1
We are providing copies of this report to the Attorney General;
Commissioner of INS; Director, Office of Management and Budget; and
other interested parties. Copies will also be made available to
others upon request.
Major contributors to this report are James M. Blume, Assistant
Director; Mark A. Tremba, Evaluator-in-Charge; and Jay Jennings,
Assignment Manager. If you need any additional information or have
any further questions, please contact me on (202) 512-8777.
Laurie E. Ekstrand
Associate Director, Administration
of Justice Issues
*** End of document. ***