"Title: Download of GAO Recommendation Results",,,,,,, "Prepared by: GAO",,,,,,, "Source: GAO recommendations database, status as of Mar 28, 2024 at 6:12 PM EST" ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,, "Publication Name","Publication Number","Date Publication Issued","Director Name","Director Phone",Agency,Recommendation,Status,Priority,Comments "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Address Workforce, Performance, and Data Management Challenges",GAO-23-105431,"Apr 26, 2023","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","The Director of EOIR should develop a schedule, including target time frames, for completing EOIR's strategic plan. (Recommendation 1)",Open,No,"EOIR reported to GAO that it planned to finalize a draft of its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan in October 2023, after which the draft will enter the departmental clearance process. EOIR noted it does not control the clearance of the strategic plan at the department level but will provide GAO with updates on its progress. To fully address this recommendation, EOIR should create a schedule, including target time frames, for completing EOIR's strategic plan." "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Address Workforce, Performance, and Data Management Challenges",GAO-23-105431,"Apr 26, 2023","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","The Director of EOIR should involve key leadership and stakeholders in establishing a documented governance structure for workforce planning that includes: assigned and documented roles and responsibilities for workforce planning and implementation across all levels of EOIR, andmeasurable and observable targets and metrics to determine effectiveness in achieving strategic or organizational goals. (Recommendation 2)",Open,No,"In October 2023, EOIR reported to GAO that it expects deliverables from its contract with the Office of Personnel Management by December 2023. As we reported, OPM was to assess EOIR's current workforce and develop a vision for the future of its workforce; conduct workshops with EOIR leadership on workforce principles and best practices; and work with EOIR to design policies and procedures for a regular and repeatable workforce planning process. According to EOIR, its Office of Administration is managing the contract, with the Human Resource Office serving as the program coordinator. EOIR anticipates using this partnership as the operational foundation for a permanent workforce planning framework. To fully address this recommendation, EOIR leadership should document a governance structure for workforce planning that includes assigned and documented roles and responsibilities and measurable and observable targets and metrics." "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Address Workforce, Performance, and Data Management Challenges",GAO-23-105431,"Apr 26, 2023","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","The Director of EOIR should take additional steps to communicate clear information to Congress as a part of its annual budget justification regarding EOIR's workforce needs and the extent to which its existing appropriations support its total reported positions. (Recommendation 3)",Open,No,"In October 2023, EOIR reported to GAO that it is taking steps to clarify its workforce needs. For example, EOIR reported it is seeking to realign its reported positions in its fiscal year 2025 budget submission to a more realistic portrait of what additional resources the agency needs to execute its mission. GAO will continue to monitor EOIR's steps to communicate clear information to Congress as a part of its annual budget justification." "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Address Workforce, Performance, and Data Management Challenges",GAO-23-105431,"Apr 26, 2023","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","The Director of EOIR should implement a process to evaluate, on a periodic basis, the performance appraisal program for adjudicative staff (immigration judges, assistant chief immigration judges, and appellate immigration judges), consistent with OPM guidance. (Recommendation 4)",Open,No,"In October 2023, EOIR reported to GAO that it plans to conduct a periodic review of the performance appraisal program. To do this, EOIR will charge an Office of Administration advisory board with responsibility for reviewing and updating the efficacy of performance plans and evaluating if the core competencies in the performance plans continue to be relevant and consistent with agency priorities. Further, EOIR plans to incorporate this periodic evaluation into EOIR's strategic plan. To fully implement this recommendation, EOIR should document the process by which it will conduct a review of the performance appraisal program, whether in the strategic plan or elsewhere, and carry out its first review." "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Address Workforce, Performance, and Data Management Challenges",GAO-23-105431,"Apr 26, 2023","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","The Director of EOIR should develop guidelines for disseminating quality information to the public, including documenting EOIR's standards and procedures for information quality, consistent with DOJ and OMB guidance. (Recommendation 5)",Open,No,"In October 2023, EOIR reported to GAO that it will work to create a publicly available repository to hold and organize the standards and procedures for information quality. EOIR noted it is evaluating current information quality standards and procedures to inform the agency's ultimate guidelines. To fully address this recommendation, EOIR should develop guidelines for disseminating quality information to the public, including documenting EOIR's standards and procedures for information quality, consistent with DOJ and OMB guidance." "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Address Workforce, Performance, and Data Management Challenges",GAO-23-105431,"Apr 26, 2023","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","The Director of EOIR should develop and implement a process to regularly reassess, using quantitative and qualitative methods, whether Judicial Tools is meeting the needs of its users. (Recommendation 6)",Open,No,"In October 2023, EOIR reported to GAO that it plans to assess the user experience with Judicial Tools and has taken steps in this regard. For example, EOIR stated it regularly engages with the user community in the form of a Judicial Tools Working Group, which includes immigration judges and court staff. EOIR also monitors critical infrastructure components such as networking, servers, and other equipment to make sure that anticipated increases in the Judicial Tools workload can scale without performance degradation. To fully address this recommendation, EOIR should develop and implement a process to regularly reassess whether Judicial Tools is meeting the needs of its users." "Immigration Courts: Actions Needed to Reduce Case Backlog and Address Long-Standing Management and Operational Challenges",GAO-17-438,"Jun 1, 2017","Rebecca S. Gambler","(202) 512-8777","Executive Office for Immigration Review","To better address current and future staffing needs, the Director of EOIR should develop and implement a strategic workforce plan that addresses, among other areas, key principles of effective strategic workforce planning, including (1) determining critical skills and competencies needed to achieve current and future programmatic results; (2) developing strategies that are tailored to address gaps in number, deployment, and alignment of human capital approaches for enabling and sustaining the contributions of all critical skills and competencies; and (3) monitoring and evaluation of the agency's progress toward its human capital goals and the contribution that human capital results have made toward achieving programmatic results.",Open,Yes,"EOIR agreed with our recommendation. In February 2022, EOIR officials stated that the agency was participating in the development of a Department of Justice (DOJ) strategic plan which, once completed, would inform EOIR's own strategic plan. DOJ issued its new strategic plan in July 2022. We reviewed EOIR's workforce planning practices, including its efforts to address this recommendation, and issued a report in April 2023 (GAO-23-105431). We found that EOIR had taken some steps to improve its workforce planning since we made our recommendation in 2017, but its practices do not fully align with key principles for strategic workforce planning. We also reported that EOIR officials stated that they had a draft strategic plan undergoing internal agency clearance, but could not provide an estimated timeframe for its completion. As of October 2023, EOIR's efforts to finalize the draft strategic plan were ongoing. Additionally, EOIR reported that it had contracted with the Office of Personnel Management for support developing a workforce planning framework, including workforce planning processes and procedures, by December 2023. To fully address our recommendation, EOIR needs to develop, and then implement, a strategic workforce plan that addresses key principles of effective strategic workforce planning. Once this strategic workforce plan is completed, EOIR needs to monitor and evaluate the agency's progress toward its human capital goals."