Immigration Enforcement: ICE Could Improve Controls to Help Guide Alien Removal Decision Making
GAO-08-67
Published: Oct 15, 2007. Publicly Released: Oct 15, 2007.
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Highlights
Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigate violations of immigration laws and identify aliens who are removable from the United States. ICE officers exercise discretion to achieve its operational goals of removing any aliens subject to removal while prioritizing those who pose a threat to national security or public safety and safeguarding aliens' rights in the removal process. The General Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine how ICE ensures that discretion is used in the most fair, reasoned, and efficient manner possible. GAO reviewed (1) when and how ICE officers and attorneys exercise discretion and what internal controls ICE has designed to (2) guide decision making and (3) oversee and monitor officers' decisions. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed ICE manuals, memorandums, and removal data, interviewed ICE officials, and visited 21 of 75 ICE field offices.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Homeland Security | To enhance ICE's ability to inform and monitor its officers' use of discretion in alien apprehensions and removals, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Assistant Secretary of ICE to develop time frames for updating existing policies, guidelines, and procedures for alien apprehension and removals and include in the updates factors that should be considered when officers make apprehension, charging, and detention determinations for aliens with humanitarian issues. | We found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not provide officers with updated policies, guidance, and procedures for alien apprehension and removals, including factors that officers should consider when apprehending, charging, and detaining aliens with humanitarian issues. By providing such updates, ICE would better enable officers to exercise discretion for aliens with humanitarian issues. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary of ICE develop time frames for updating existing policies, guidelines, and procedures for exercising discretion and include in the updates factors that should be considered when officers make apprehension, charging, and detention... determinations for aliens with humanitarian issues. In fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2010, ICE issued three memorandums that provide guidance on humanitarian issues and outline enforcement priorities for apprehending, detaining, and removal of aliens based on, among other things, national security or public safety risks. For example, one memorandum states that, absent extraordinary circumstances or mandatory detention requirements, field office directors should not detain aliens known to be suffering from physical or mental illness; who are disabled, elderly, pregnant, or nursing; or, aliens who demonstrate that they are primary caretakers of children or an infirm person. The memorandum also requires ICE officers and agents to obtain approval from field office directors when detaining such aliens. In issuing these memorandums, ICE demonstrated that officers are being provided updated information to inform officers' use of discretion in alien apprehensions and removals. These memorandums are consistent with our recommendation.
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| Department of Homeland Security | To enhance ICE's ability to inform and monitor its officers' use of discretion in alien apprehensions and removals, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Assistant Secretary of ICE to develop a mechanism to help ensure that officers are consistently provided with updates regarding legal developments necessary for making alien apprehension and removal decisions. | In fiscal year 2008, we found that United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) did not provide officers who were responsible for apprehending, charging, and detaining removable aliens at ICE field offices with comprehensive guidance and consistent legal updates that could help inform their decisions. ICE, by providing officers with this information, would better enable its officers to make correct removal disposition decisions and better ensure that removal cases are not incorrectly terminated. In August 2008, ICE officials reported that they took two actions in response to our recommendation. First, ICE implemented new internal training programs and created a new position...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To enhance ICE's ability to inform and monitor its officers' use of discretion in alien apprehensions and removals, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Assistant Secretary of ICE to evaluate the costs and alternatives of developing a reporting mechanism by which ICE senior managers can analyze trends in the use of discretion to help identify areas that may require management actions--such as changes to guidance, procedures, and training. | In fiscal year 2008, we reviewed and reported on how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ensures that officer discretion is used in the most fair, reasoned, and efficient manner possible to (1) achieve its operational goals of removing aliens subject to removal that pose a threat to national security and public safety and (2) safeguard aliens' rights in the removal process. We found that ICE had two control mechanisms in place to monitor its removal operations--supervisory review practices and procedures and an inspection program--but lacked a means to analyze information specific to the exercise of discretion across field offices. In 2008, ICE officials indicated that no...
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Topics
Immigration statusBorder securityDecision makingDeportationImmigration enforcementImmigrantsImmigration and naturalization lawInternal controlsLaw enforcementPolicy evaluationReporting requirementsStandardsVoluntary complianceProgram implementation