Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) enforcement of workplace immigration laws.

GAO noted that: (1) significant numbers of aliens unauthorized to work in the United States have used fraudulent documents to circumvent the employment verification process designed to prevent employers from hiring them, thereby undermining the effectiveness of the process; (2) employers seeking to comply with the law can be deceived by fraudulent documents, while those seeking cheap labor can intentionally hire unauthorized aliens under the guise of having complied with the employment verification requirements; (3) INS and the Department of Labor's immigration-related worksite enforcement efforts have been limited, and INS' employer investigation efforts have produced modest results; and (4) INS is changing its approach to worksite enforcement, but it is too early to gauge its success.