Summary
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data show that during the last two fiscal years, alien smuggling has increased, and INS predicts that the smuggling will continue to grow. INS issued an anti-smuggling strategy in 1997 that contains domestic and international components. The domestic component calls for (1) INS to focus its investigations on major smuggling operations and (2) INS' anti-smuggling investigative field units to coordinate their activities and share anti-smuggling intelligence with each other. INS' initial efforts will be directed at South/Central Texas, which is one of the three major alien smuggling corridors in the United States. The international component calls for INS to cooperate with foreign governments to disrupt alien smuggling in countries that are either major sources of illegal immigration or transit routes for aliens seeking to enter the United States. Several factors may have impeded INS' ability to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the domestic component of its strategy. These factors include a lack of program coordination, the absence of an automated case-tracking and management system, and limited performance measures. INS' intelligence program has been impeded by a lack of understanding among field staff on how to report intelligence information, a lack of staff to carry out intelligence work at most INS district offices, and a cumbersome process of organizing data that does not allow for rapid retrieval and analysis. As a result, INS is limited in its ability to identify targets for enforcement and to focus its resources on efforts that would have the greatest impact. In the international area, INS may not be having more than a temporary impact on alien smuggling overseas. Impediments in this area include corruption among some foreign officials and the lack of laws against alien smuggling in some countries. Without improvements in its programs, INS' ability to disrupt and deter increasingly sophisticated and organized alien smugglers and dismantle their operations will continue to be hampered.
GAO noted that: (1) in fiscal year (FY) 1999, 14 percent of all Border Patrol apprehensions were smuggled aliens compared to 9 percent in 1997; (2) according to INS, aliens from countries other than Mexico purportedly rely more heavily on organized smugglers and an increase in apprehensions of aliens from other countries would indicate an increase in alien smuggling; (3) apprehensions of aliens from countries other than Mexico increased from 58,000 in FY 1997 to about 81,000 in FY 1999; (4) INS believes that alien smuggling will become a more significant enforcement problem in the future because alien smuggling organizations are expected to become more sophisticated, organized, and complex; (5) INS issued an anti-smuggling strategy in 1997 that contains domestic and international components; (6) the domestic component calls for: (a) INS to focus its investigations on major smuggling operations; and (b) INS' anti-smuggling investigative field units to coordinate their activities and share anti-smuggling intelligence information with each other; (7) as part of the domestic component, the strategy calls for INS' Intelligence Program to optimize its ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence information to identify targets for enforcement and help focus INS' anti-smuggling resources on efforts that would have the greatest impact; (8) the international component includes INS' conducting operations in cooperation with foreign governments to disrupt alien smuggling in countries that either are major sources of illegal immigration or through which illegal aliens travel on their way to the United States; (9) INS' ability to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the domestic component of its strategy is impeded by several factors: (a) lack of program coordination; (b) absence of an automated case tracking and management system; and (c) limited performance measures; (10) as part of its international component, INS conducted operations in 34 countries between August 1995 and November 1999; (11) during these operations, INS assisted in intercepting undocumented aliens destined for the United States, trained foreign officials on migration controls, and provided assistance in prosecuting alien smugglers; (12) however, there have been impediments to INS' ability to have more than a temporary impact on alien smuggling overseas; and (13) according to INS and Department of State officials, these impediments include corruption of some foreign officials and the lack of laws against alien smuggling in some countries.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
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Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: The Commissioner of INS should establish criteria for opening an anti-smuggling case to help ensure that INS' anti-smuggling resources are focused on the highest priority cases.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security
Status: Implemented
Comments: In October 2002, INS established a Comprehensive Investigations Reporting, Analysis, and Control system describing the policies and procedures for opening and managing anti-smuggling cases. The system defines and prioritizes for investigation the different types of anti-smuggling cases that can be opened.
Recommendation: The Commissioner of INS should establish a cost-effective case tracking and management system of alien smuggling investigations that is automated, agencywide, and readily available to investigative personnel and program managers to facilitate the sharing of case information and prevent duplication of effort.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security
Status: Implemented
Comments: On April 8, 2002, INS mandated the use of the Criminal Investigative Reporting System (CIRS), an agencywide automated case tracking system, by all INS investigative components by October 1, 2002. CIRS integration with other automated INS enforcement systems should be completed during fiscal year 2004, assuming DOJ budget recommendations for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 are not severely reduced.
Recommendation: The Commissioner of INS should establish performance measures for the anti-smuggling efforts and intelligence program with which to gauge program effects.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security
Status: In process
Comments: In February 2004, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provided three types of documents that it believed contained information meriting closure of the recommendation. However, two of the documents were prepared prior to issuance of GAO's report (with the exception of a small portion of the second document, which was an update of previous reports on smuggling fees and loads); and the third was a draft document with limited information on performance measurement related to dismantling and disrupting alien smuggling. In its letter, ICE indicated that an ongoing GAO review of ICE Integration and Staffing Priorities (code 440291) would assess investigative intelligence operations. However, this is not the case. It is too soon to tell whether another ongoing GAO review--of the Federal Government's Response to Alien Smuggling (code 440317)--will do an in-depth assessment of ICE's performance measurement related to alien smuggling. GAO is waiting to receive DHS's global "Anti-Smuggling/Human Trafficking Strategy" to determine if it contains the necessary information to close this recommendation. At this point, what actions ICE has taken to respond to GAO's recommendation remain unclear.
Recommendation: The Commissioner of INS should require that intelligence reports be prepared using a database format so the information can be systematically analyzed.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security
Status: Implemented
Comments: INS has developed an automated intelligence reporting form in database format that is available to every officer in INS. The analytical software used to systematically analyze the data is available INS wide.
