Executive Office For Immigration Review: Caseload Performance Reporting Needs Improvement

The Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) evaluates the performance of the immigration courts based on the immigration courts' success in meeting case completion goals. EOIR reports this information in its internal quarterly case completion goal reports. However, we found a recurring inconsistency between reports as well as other inconsistencies. For example, the number of cases awaiting adjudication at the end of a quarter was not the same as the number of cases awaiting adjudication at the beginning of the following quarter. Although EOIR provided several reasons for the inconsistency, we could not replicate the past reports to determine the accuracy of the case completion goal data. EOIR did not maintain the individual queries used to run the prior quarterly reports; it only maintained the current set of queries. The inconsistencies indicated that EOIR should maintain appropriate documentation to demonstrate the reports' accuracy. We recommended that the Director of EOIR maintain appropriate documentation to demonstrate the accuracy of the case completion goal reports. In response, in a memo dated September 28, 2006, EOIR instituted a policy requiring documentation behind the quarterly reports be maintained so that prior reports could readily be rerun, as the need arises. When changes to the compilation criteria behind the reports occur (e.g., adding new categories of exemptions), the old reporting format would be maintained as well as the new reporting format. EOIR also compiled a chronology of the changes made to the case completion goals that would be updated as changes are made to the criteria in the reporting of the case completion data. In addition, in February 2007, EOIR issued additional standard operating procedures for generating the case completion goals. As such, EOIR should have documentation that shows how the case completion goal reports were developed and that demonstrates the accuracy of the reported data.

The Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) evaluates the performance of the immigration courts based on the immigration courts' success in meeting case completion goals. EOIR reports this information in its quarterly case completion goal reports. We found that in developing the reports, EOIR decided to exclude from the measurement certain categories of cases that, due to extenuating circumstances, were not expected to be completed within the established timeframes. As a result the number of cases covered by the quarterly reports was less than the total court caseload. Additionally, depending on what cases are excluded from the case completion goals, the makeup of the cases included in the reports can change from one quarter to the next. These facts were not clearly reflected in the reports themselves. We recommended that the Director of EOIR clearly state what cases are being counted in the reports. In response, in a memo dated September 28, 2006, EOIR instituted a policy that its Office of Planning, Analysis, and Technology would review the format of the reports and revise them as necessary to ensure their clarity. The reports would be footnoted as appropriate to define the cases that are being tabulated therein. In its first quarter 2007 case completion goal report EOIR included information on which types of cases were included and stated that the case completion goals were related to the percentage of the cases actually completed excluding exempted cases. As a result, EOIR would enable users of the data, including members of its management, to better understand exactly what is being measured and the data's implication for the immigration courts' efficiency.