Homeland Security: INS Cannot Locate Many Aliens Because It Lacks Reliable Address Information

摘要

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the federal governments need to locate aliens who represented a national security threat or who could help with the nation's anti-terrorism efforts was considerably heightened. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is the federal agency that is responsible for maintaining address information for aliens who are in the United States and was called upon to help by providing current addresses for aliens who were being sought by the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, efforts to locate these aliens were impeded by INS's lack of current address information. Because of growing concern over the governments need to locate aliens, you asked us to determine what was impeding INS from using its alien address information to reliably locate aliens in the United States. This report discusses (1) the statutory framework that requires aliens to report their addresses and any address changes, (2) the reliability of INSs alien address records to locate aliens who were sought by DOJ, and (3) the principal factors affecting the reliability of INS's alien address records.