The Department of Justice's
Office of Inspector General has issued a report noting that most aliens facing
removal orders from the
US
are not ultimately removed
b
y the INS when they are not detained. Only 13% of immigrants ordered removed who
are not detained
b
y the INS actually
lea
ve, according to the OIG. But when the INS actually detained a person, the rate
of actual removal jumps to 92%. According to the report, immigrants ordered
removed
from countries that the
U.S. Department of State identified as sponsors of terrorism only 6 percent
of those ordered removed were actually removed,
with crim
ina
l records only 35 percent of those ordered removed were actually removed,
and
who were denied asylum
only 3 percent of those ordered removed actually left.
The OIG was especially
b
lunt in criticizing the INS for not following recommendations from an earlier
report that were intended to address this pro
b
lem.
For example, the INS agreed to
improve its methods of notifying aliens of their duty to surrender for removal.
The INS pu
b
lished a proposed rule,
b
ut allowed it to lapse. After Septem
b
er 11th attacks, the INS revived the rule. As of last month, the rule was still
not f
ina
lized.
According to the OIG, the INS
agreed to conduct field tests to target for removal all aliens with f
ina
l orders. They told the OIG that a pilot project in
Phil
adelphia
had gone well. However, the INS was not a
b
le to provide any info
rm
ation regarding the pilot project in
Phil
adelphia
or other locations and they could
not locate anyone who could remem
b
er the projects.
The INS contracted with the
Vera Institute of Justice to conduct a demonstration project to examine whether
a supervised release program could improve court appearance rates for asylum
seekers, criminal aliens, and undocumented workers. The f
ina
l project report was issued on
August 1, 2000
,
b
ut as of Decem
b
er 2002, the
INS had not acted on it or
implemented any alternative actions to improve the removal rates for nondetained
aliens.
And f
ina
lly, according to the report, the INS agreed to use an FY 1996
b
udget enhancement of $11.2 million to fund 142 positions to remove alien a
b
sconders. It also agreed to use the INSs
Law
Enforcement
Support
Center
to enter alien a
b
sconder info
rm
ation into the National Crime Info
rm
ation Center (NCIC) and develop an automated list of crim
ina
l a
b
sconders for the law enforcement community. However, the INS did not esta
b
lish a
b
sconder removal teams or develop an automated list of a
b
sconders until after
Septem
b
er 11, 2001
. Moreover, the INS was una
b
le to document how it used the $11.2 million.
The
report can
b
e
found online at http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/inspection/I-2003-004/f
ina
l.pdf
