INS, GAO say immigration benefit fraud is pervasive

The Immigration and Naturalization Service believes benefit fraud is "pervasive and serious," but has done little to combat the long-standing problem, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office.

The agency does not know the extent of the fraud, and has failed to provide its field offices with guidance in two key areas: how to conduct investigations of fraud and how to use technology to manage and share information about ongoing cases, the January report said. The INS, which has four service centers and 33 district offices that process applications and petitions for benefits, also hasn't developed performance measures to use in offices responsible for investigating fraud, GAO said.

"INS' management of its benefit fraud enforcement activities has been fragmented and unfocused owing to several problems," said the report, "Immigration Benefit Fraud: Focused Approach is Needed to Address Problems" (GAO-02-66).

The INS needs to direct field offices on how to handle benefit fraud cases, so they can coordinate their workload properly and make efficient use of investigative resources, GAO said. The agency also needs a comprehensive tracking system to prevent duplicate investigations and keep important data on past, present and future targets of benefit fraud investigations, the report concluded.

Immigration fraud involves falsifying immigration applications and documents to obtain benefits, including naturalization or authorization to work. Often, the benefit fraud is committed to make drug smuggling and terrorism easier, the report said.

Reports, including a 1999 study from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and comments from INS officials indicate that the fraud problem is widespread and serious, and "will increase as smugglers and other criminal enterprises use fraud as a means of bringing illegal aliens, including criminal aliens, into the country," according to GAO. For example, one case involved an immigration consulting business that filed 22,000 applications for aliens to qualify for the extended legalization process. Nearly 5,500 of the claims were fraudulent, and 4,400 more were suspected of being fraudulent, the report said.

The INS is under a great deal of pressure to expedite immigration applications and reduce its backlog, which is part of the reason fraud investigations are on the back burner, the authors of the GAO report said. "For example, at one service center, officials told us that adjudication officers are so overloaded and pressured to process applications that they are given required overtime to adjudicate cases at home," the report said. But, employees don't have access to specific agency databases that would help them detect fraud, GAO said.

In fiscal 2000, the agency received more than 6 million applications, nearly 50 percent more applications than in fiscal 1994. New requirements in immigration law are also slowing down the process, according to GAO. The agency spent about $26 million on fraud detection and prevention efforts in fiscal 2000.

GAO praised the INS for beginning to determine the extent of fraud in cases involving temporary work visas, and urged the agency to conduct similar efforts in other areas susceptible to fraud. In addition to providing guidance and creating an agency-wide case tracking system, the INS should improve its information-sharing among field offices and give adjudicators greater access to important case data, GAO said.

The INS agreed with GAO's findings, but expressed concern that some estimates of fraud provided by agency officials were "unscientific" and "unsubstantiated." INS also said officials may have had different definitions of fraud.

"It appears in some cases individuals are discussing cases in which suspicion is aroused, in others, where a more in-depth view should be conducted, and in others, situations where criminal fraud is established," said Michael A. Pearson, executive associate commissioner in the INS' office of field operations, in his comments to GAO.