Department of Homeland Security Components That Address Alien Smuggling along the Southwest Border

DHS ICE is responsible for investigating alien smuggling as well as  detaining and removing aliens who are subject to removal from the United  States. These responses result in little or no investigative  work and instead involve transporting and processing aliens for possible  removal. In 2006, to respond to immigration-related calls for  assistance from state and local law enforcement agencies in the Phoenix  metropolitan area, DRO developed the LEAR program. OI was previously  the primary ICE office providing assistance to state and local law  enforcement agencies in the Phoenix area. From October 1, 2008, to May  24, 2009, the LEAR program processed 3,776 aliens, aliens who OI would  have had to process in the absence of the LEAR program. Alien Smuggling Asset Seizures Have Decreased since 2005; Opportunities Exist to Leverage Additional Financial Investigative and Seizure Techniques

		The Value of OI Alien Smuggling Asset Seizures Has Decreased since 2005

In 2005 we reported that OI and Treasury’s Executive Office for Asset  Forfeiture anticipated that in fiscal year 2005 and in future years alien  smuggling investigations would result in increasing volumes of asset  seizures as OI applied its financial and money laundering expertise, which  it acquired when elements of legacy INS components and U.S. Customs  merged to form OI in 2003. According to data provided by OI, and shown in table  2, the value of alien smuggling seizures nationwide increased from about  $11.2 million in fiscal year 2005 to $17.4 million in fiscal year 2007, but  declined to $7.6 million in fiscal year 2009. According to OI officials in all four SAC offices we visited, OI had  increased its efforts to identify and seize assets related to alien smuggling. Justice agreed with our recommendation. However, the OI’s Phoenix SAC has assigned one investigator  to the Task Force. An overall assessment of whether and how these  techniques may be applied in the context of disrupting alien smuggling  could help ensure that ICE is not missing opportunities to take additional  actions and leverage resources to support the common goal of countering  alien smuggling. Regarding MIRP, in accordance with the 2004 MIRP MOU between the  United States and Mexico the objectives are to remove aliens from the  United States—apprehended during the summer months, generally the  hottest and most dangerous time of year for border crossings— to the  interior of Mexico to deter them from returning in order to reduce loss of  life and to combat organized crime linked to the smuggling, trafficking,  and exploitation of persons. ICE and CBP Have Not Fully Evaluated Progress in Meeting Alien Smuggling Objectives

			Taking Actions to Fully Measure Progress toward Achieving Objectives Would Help ICE and CBP to Evaluate Their Effectiveness along the Southwest Border

Federal internal control standards call for agencies to establish  performance measures and indicators in order to evaluate the  effectiveness of their efforts. Although it did not establish a performance measure for alien smuggling  enforcement consequences until fiscal year 2009, OI provided us with such  data for the period from fiscal years 2005 through 2009. Although one of the objectives of OI’s alien smuggling investigations is to  seize smugglers’ assets, OI does not have performance measures for asset  seizures related to alien smuggling cases. CBP has not established performance measures for ATEP and Operation  Streamline to assess progress toward achieving program goals. To determine whether ICE could utilize Arizona’s financial investigative  techniques to address alien smuggling, direct HSTC or another ICE- designated entity to conduct an assessment of the Arizona Attorney  General’s financial investigations strategy to identify any promising  investigative techniques for federal use. By conducting a more complete study of the feasibility of expanding the  program throughout the southwest border region and expanding the  program if it deems it feasible, ICE would be in a better position to help  ensure that its resources are more efficiently directed toward alien  smuggling and other priority investigations. Accordingly, this report  addresses the following three questions:    Since fiscal year 2005, what has been the trend regarding the amount of  investigative effort ICE’s Office of Investigations (OI) has devoted to alien  smuggling along the southwest border, what have been the results, and is  there an opportunity for ICE to use its investigative resources more  effectively? In addition, we analyzed CBP  ENFORCE Integrated Database data from fiscal year 2005 through May  2009 to determine the extent to which alien smugglers were  reapprehended by CBP after being processed through the OASISS  program.
Why GAO Did This Study

Alien smuggling along the southwest border is a threat to the security of the United States and Mexico. Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Office of Investigations (OI)--part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)--is the primary federal agency responsible for investigating alien smuggling along the southwest border. As requested, this report addresses, for the southwest border, (1) OI's efforts to counter alien smuggling since 2005, and opportunities, if any, for ICE to use its resources more effectively; (2) the progress DHS has made in seizing alien smugglers' assets since fiscal year 2005 and any promising techniques that could be applied to seize smugglers' assets; and (3) the extent to which ICE has objectives related to alien smuggling and measures to assess progress. GAO interviewed officials in all four OI offices along the southwest border and analyzed data on OI's cases and seizures, from fiscal years 2005 through 2009.

What GAO Found

OI work years spent investigating alien smuggling increased from 190 to 197 from fiscal years 2005 through 2009, and an opportunity exists to better leverage resources. Officials from two of the four OI offices GAO visited said that in addition to conducting criminal investigations, OI has been tasked to respond to calls from state and local law enforcement to process and transport aliens for possible removal, which diverts OI resources from conducting alien smuggling and other investigations. In 2006, the Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO), another ICE subcomponent, took over responsibility for responding to state and local law enforcement calls in the Phoenix metropolitan area, through the Law Enforcement Agency Response (LEAR) program. For this program, officials from DRO, not OI, transport and process aliens for removal. From October 1, 2008, to May 24, 2009, the LEAR program processed 3,776 aliens, aliens who OI would have otherwise had to process. By studying the feasibility of expanding the LEAR program, ICE would be in a better position to determine if it could more efficiently direct its OI resources toward alien smuggling and other investigations. OI's alien smuggling asset seizures have decreased since 2005; however, opportunities exist to leverage additional seizure and financial investigative techniques. According to OI data, alien smuggling seizures nationwide increased in value from about $11.2 million in 2005 to about $17.4 million in 2007, but declined to about $12.2 million in fiscal year 2008 and to about $7.6 million in fiscal year 2009. One opportunity to leverage financial techniques to disrupt alien smuggling and seize assets involves assessing the financial investigative techniques used by an Arizona task force. The task force seized millions of dollars and disrupted alien smuggling operations by following cash transactions flowing through money transmitters that serve as the primary method of payment to those individuals responsible for smuggling aliens. An overall assessment of whether and how these techniques may be applied in the context of disrupting alien smuggling could help ensure that ICE is not missing opportunities to take additional actions and leverage resources to support the common goal of countering alien smuggling. ICE has established objectives for its alien smuggling-related enforcement programs, but could do more to better measure progress toward achieving program objectives. For example, one of its components, DRO, has defined the objective of the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program (MIRP) as to remove aliens who are apprehended during the hot and dangerous summer months from the United States to the interior of Mexico to deter them from returning in order to reduce loss of life and to help disrupt alien smuggling operations; however, DRO has not established performance measures to evaluate its progress in meeting its objective consistent with internal control standards. Thus, ICE does not know the effectiveness of its efforts related to MIRP at deterring individuals from illegally returning to the United States.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends, among other things, that DHS evaluate the feasibility of expanding the LEAR program, assess the Arizona Attorney General's investigations strategy, and develop performance measures for MIRP. DHS agreed with four of five recommendations in this report directed to DHS but disagreed with establishing MIRP performance measures because it did not believe such action was appropriate. GAO believes this recommendation is consistent with the program's intent.