An aspect of this review was to identify aliens who may not have revealed their arrests or convictions. After reviewing criminal histories provided by the FBI, INS identified 17,257 applicants who were naturalized between August 31, 1995, and September 30, 1996, with criminal history records of arrests for felonies or other potentially disqualifying crimes. Accordingly, INS reviewed 16,858 criminal histories and corresponding case files in an attempt to judge if these aliens should have been naturalized. As shown in table 1, in its review of these 16,858 case files, INS designated each case as either “proper,” “requires further action,” or “presumptively ineligible.” According to INS officials, a case was designated as proper if the data in the case file supported the initial decision to naturalize the individual. The EOIR reviewers and the INS review adjudicators had the same decisions in 439 of the 557 cases (or 79 percent). The results for the 118 cases in which INS and EOIR reached different decisions were as follows: in 6 cases, INS judged that the aliens were presumptively ineligible, while EOIR judged that in 1 of these cases the initial adjudication decision was proper and in the other 5 cases further action was required by INS field units; in 40 cases, INS judged that further action was required by its field units, while EOIR judged that in 36 of these cases the initial adjudication decisions were proper and in the other 4 cases the aliens were presumptively ineligible; and in 72 cases, INS judged that the initial adjudication decisions were proper, while EOIR judged that in 68 of these cases further action was required by INS field units and in the other 4 cases the aliens were presumptively ineligible. Although in these examples more of the INS judgments were in agreement with the initial adjudication, we could not conclude that a statistically significant difference existed between the INS and EOIR decisions. As previously discussed, INS is reviewing the 6,323 cases—that is, the 5,954 cases that INS judged as requiring further action and the 369 cases that INS judged the aliens to be presumptively ineligible—for potential revocation. Conclusions

INS reviewed the case files of 16,858 aliens with criminal history records who had been naturalized between August 31, 1995, and September 30, 1996. To provide quality assurance that INS’ decisions during the review were unbiased, EOIR reviewed a statistically valid sample of 557 alien case files from the universe of 16,858 aliens. After we discussed the 72 cases with an INS attorney involved with reviewing the cases for potential revocation, he said that these cases are being reviewed with the other 6,323 cases. The overall approach KPMG employed to monitor INS’ judgments followed accepted social science standards. The standards KPMG used included (1) establishing procedures to ensure the appropriate collection and review of FBI criminal history records and the review of related alien case files, (2) promoting consistency in the judgments of INS adjudicators by providing training and using a standardized worksheet, and (3) identifying recurring adjudicator errors so that corrective action could be taken. In addition, KPMG’s report disclosed limitations in the study procedures followed and discussed conditions that may have affected the accuracy and completeness of INS’ review.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reported on the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) review of its case files of aliens who were naturalized between August 31, 1995 and September 30, 1996, and who the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had identified as having criminal history records, focusing on the: (1) results of the INS and Executive Office for Immigration Review's (EOIR) case reviews; and (2) approach used by KPMG Peat Marwick LLP to monitor INS' efforts to identify improperly naturalized aliens.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) after receiving criminal history records from the FBI, INS reviewed to case files of 16,858 aliens with records that included a felony arrest or conviction of a serious crime who were naturalized between August 31, 1995, and September 30, 1996; (2) INS reviewed these criminal history records and its case files in an attempt to judge if these aliens should have been naturalized; (3) in its review of these 16,858 case files, INS designated each case as either proper, requires further action, or presumptively ineligible; (4) INS designated 10,535 cases as proper, 5,954 cases as requires further action, and 369 cases as presumptively ineligible; (5) to provide quality assurance that INS' decisions during the review were unbiased, EOIR reviewed a statistically valid sample of 557 alien cases from the universe of 16,858 aliens; (6) EOIR and INS reached the same decisions in 439 (or 79 percent) of the 557 cases; (7) although there was a 21-percent disagreement rate between the INS and EOIR reviewers, GAO could not conclude that a statistically significant difference existed between the INS and EOIR decisions; (8) INS is reviewing for potential revocation the 6,323 cases that its adjudicators judged as requiring further action or presumptively ineligible; (9) although INS initially did not plan to review the 72 cases that EOIR's review indicated may also have involved improper naturalization decisions, an attorney involved in reviewing the 6,323 cases said that these 72 cases are being reviewed with the other cases; (10) in carrying out its monitoring responsibilities, KPMG used accepted social science standards; (11) the KPMG report: (a) established procedures to ensure the appropriate collection and review of FBI criminal history records and the review of related alien case files; (b) promoted consistency in the judgments of INS adjudicators by providing training and having the adjudicators use a standardized worksheet, and (c) identified recurring adjudicator errors so that corrective action could be taken; and (12) KPMG's report also: (a) disclosed limitations in the study procedures followed; and (b) discussed conditions that may have affected the accuracy and completeness of INS' review.