	Components of the Interior Enforcement Strategy

In January 1999, INS issued its Interior Enforcement Strategy. 2. Deter, dismantle, and diminish smuggling or trafficking of aliens. 3. Respond to community reports and complaints about illegal  immigration. 4. 5. Block and remove employers’ access to undocumented workers. The  strategy emphasizes denying employers access to unauthorized  workers by checking their compliance with the employment  verification requirements in the Immigration Reform and Control Act  of 1986. Challenges to Implementing the Interior Enforcement Programs

Our work has shown that INS faced numerous daunting enforcement  issues, as will BICE as it assumes responsibility for the strategy. Having data on how to effectively allocate staff  and placing sufficient staff in the right locations is important if BICE is to  achieve program goals. With respect to alien smuggling, INS lacked field intelligence staff to  collect and analyze information. The worksite enforcement program received a relatively small portion of  INS’s staffing and budget. Given limited  enforcement resources, BICE needs to assure that it targets those  industries where employment of illegal aliens poses the greatest potential  risk to national security. INS’s interior enforcement strategy did not define the criteria for opening  investigations of employers suspected of criminal activities. They said that training in this area was critically needed. The strategy stated that specific  performance measurements would be developed in the annual  performance plans required by the Government Performance and Results  Act. Some of the challenges  discussed above carry over from the INS, such as the need for sound  intelligence information, efficient use of resources and management of  workloads, information systems that generate timely and reliable  information, clear and current guidance, and appropriate performance  measures. Other challenges are emerging. These include creating  appropriate cooperation and collaboration mechanisms to assure effective  program management, and reinforcing training and management controls  to help assure compliance with DHS policies and procedures and the  proper treatment of citizens and aliens. For example, both the Border  Patrol, now located in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection  (BCBP), and BICE’s immigration investigations program conducted alien  smuggling investigations prior to the merger into DHS. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) is responsible  for administering services such as immigrant and nonimmigrant  sponsorship, work authorization, naturalization of qualified applicants for  U.S. citizenship, and asylum. However, some try to obtain these benefits through fraud,  and investigating fraud is the responsibility of BICE’s Immigration  Investigations program. INS’ approach to addressing benefit fraud was  fragmented and unfocused. For example, as part of a special registration program for visitors from  selected foreign countries, immigration investigators have been  fingerprinting, photographing, and interviewing aliens upon entry to the  U.S. Immigration investigators have also participated in anti-terrorism task  forces across the country and helped interview thousands of non- immigrant aliens to determine what knowledge they may have had about  terrorists and terrorist activities.
Why GAO Did This Study

Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration Interior Enforcement Strategy's implementation is now the responsibility of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE). This strategy was originally created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In the 1990s, INS developed a strategy to control illegal immigration across the U.S. border and a strategy to address enforcement priorities within the country's interior. In 1994, INS's Border Patrol issued a strategy to deter illegal entry. The strategy called for "prevention through deterrence"; that is, to raise the risk of being apprehended for illegal aliens to a point where they would consider it futile to try to enter. The plan called for targeting resources in a phased approach, starting first with the areas of greatest illegal activity. In 1999, the INS issued its interior enforcement strategy designed to deter illegal immigration, prevent immigration-related crimes, and remove those illegally in the United States. Historically, Congress and INS have devoted over five times more resources in terms of staff and budget on border enforcement than on interior enforcement.

What GAO Found

INS's interior enforcement strategy was designed to address (1) the detention and removal of criminal aliens, (2) the dismantling and diminishing of alien smuggling operations, (3) community complaints about illegal immigration, (4) immigration benefit and document fraud, and (5) employers' access to undocumented workers. These components remain in the BICE strategy. INS faced numerous challenges in implementing the strategy. For example, INS lacked reliable data to determine staff needs, reliable information technology, clear and consistent guidelines and procedures for working-level staff, effective collaboration and coordination within INS and with other agencies, and appropriate performance measures to help assess program results. As BICE assumes responsibility for strategy implementation, it should consider how to address these challenges by improving resource allocation, information technology, program guidance, and performance measurement. The creation of DHS has focused attention on other challenges to implementing the strategy. For example, BICE needs to coordinate and collaborate with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) for the timely and proper adjudication of benefit applications, and with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP) to assist in antismuggling investigations and sharing intelligence. In addition, BICE needs to assure that training and internal controls are sufficient to govern investigators' antiterrorism activities when dealing with citizens and aliens.