Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

As agreed with your offices, this report addresses the following: (1) the effectiveness of the current employment verification process in preventing employers from hiring unauthorized aliens, (2) INS’ efforts to improve the employment verification process, (3) the level of effort INS and Labor devoted to worksite enforcement activities and the results of these activities, and (4) changes being made to INS’ worksite enforcement program. In about 2,100 (or 60 percent) of the 3,500 investigations in which INS found fraudulent documents, INS determined that the employer had complied with the employment verification process and did not knowingly hire unauthorized aliens, but that unauthorized aliens’ use of fraudulent documents circumvented the process. INS Has Had Difficulty in Meeting Its Pilot Program Enrollment Goal

As mandated in the 1996 Act, INS is testing or expects to test three programs to make it possible for employers to electronically verify an employee’s eligibility to work. Little Progress in Reducing the Number of Acceptable Documents

Various studies of IRCA’s employment verification process have advocated that the number of documents that employees can use to demonstrate employment eligibility should be reduced to make the employment verification process more secure and to reduce employer confusion. However, INS has made changes to the list since the previous regulations were issued. It designated a new document that will eventually replace another document already on the list. These increases notwithstanding, INS consistently devoted about 2 percent of its enforcement workyears to worksite enforcement during this period. In fiscal year 1998, INS’ worksite investigators completed about 6,100 lead-driven investigations and about 400 compliance audits for a total of about 6,500 investigations, which equated to about 3 percent of the estimated number of employers of unauthorized aliens. As a result, Labor had provided little assistance to INS in identifying employers suspected of hiring unauthorized workers. INS Is Changing Its Approach to Worksite Enforcement

INS’ approach to how it will enforce IRCA’s employer sanctions provisions is changing. In January 1999, INS issued an Interior Enforcement Strategy. The strategy calls for INS to prioritize and aggressively pursue criminal investigation of employers who are flagrant or grave violators. Because INS is just beginning this new approach and is still developing implementation plans, it is too soon to tell how or how well INS will implement its strategy. First, Justice indicated that it does not favor a rule requiring aliens to show only INS- issued work authorization documents as proof of employment eligibility, even if the INS documents are more fraud resistant than other documents. Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Our objectives were to determine (1) the effectiveness of the current employment verification process in preventing employers from hiring unauthorized aliens, (2) the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s (INS) efforts to improve the employment verification process, (3) the level of effort INS and the Department of Labor devoted to worksite enforcement activities and the results of these activities, and (4) changes being made to INS’ worksite enforcement program.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Attorney General's strategy for enforcing workplace immigration laws, focusing on: (1) the effectiveness of the employment verification process in preventing employers from hiring unauthorized aliens; (2) the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) efforts to improve the employment verification process; (3) the level of effort INS and the Department of Labor (DOL) devoted to worksite enforcement activities and the results of these activities; and (4) changes being made to INS' worksite enforcement program.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) the effectiveness of the employment verification process, which relies on identity and employment eligibility documents that employees are to show employers, can be undermined by unauthorized aliens using fraudulent documents; (2) INS has undertaken several initiatives to improve the employment verification process to make it less susceptible to fraud, but significant obstacles remain; (3) INS is testing or expects to test three pilot programs in which employers electronically verify an employee's eligibility to work; (4) INS has made little progress toward its goal of reducing the number of documents that employers can accept to determine employment eligibility; (5) in February 1998, INS issued proposed regulations to reduce the number of documents that can be used from 27 to 14; (6) however, INS received numerous comments on the proposed regulations and INS officials do not know when these regulations will be finalized; (7) INS has begun issuing new documents with increased security features, which INS hopes will make it easier for employers to verify the documents' authenticity; (8) however, aliens are statutorily permitted to show employers various documents other than the INS documents that authorize aliens to work, and other widely used documents do not have the security features of the INS documents; (9) since 1994, INS has devoted about 2 percent of its enforcement workyears to its worksite enforcement program, which is designed to detect noncompliance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act; (10) in 1998, INS completed about 6,500 investigations of employers, which equated to about 3 percent of the country's estimated number of employers of unauthorized aliens; (11) DOL has provided limited assistance to INS in identifying employers suspected of hiring unauthorized workers, and, under a new agreement with INS, DOL's role will be reduced; (12) the results of INS' worksite enforcement program that indicate it has infrequently imposed sanctions on employers; (13) INS is changing its approach to worksite enforcement; (14) INS has developed an interior enforcement strategy with five strategic priorities; (15) two of the priorities involve worksite enforcement, with one calling for INS to pursue the criminal investigation of employers who are flagrant or grave violators; and (16) since INS is just beginning this new approach, it is too soon to know how the proposed changes will be implemented or to assess their impact on the employment of unauthorized workers.