INS: Update of Management Problems and Program Issues

GAO discussed the management and program-related problems that confront the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). GAO noted that: (1) INS management needs to correct significant weaknesses in its service delivery, budget development process, financial management, information management, and organizational structure; (2) INS should establish a strategic management process that identifies priorities, aids planning, improves communications and policy setting, and establishes accountability systems; (3) INS efforts to address its service delivery problems have been insufficient; (4) INS has weak controls over its expenditures and revenues and suffers from a lack of agencywide priorities; (5) INS managers and field offices do not have adequate, reliable, and timely information to effectively carry out their missions; (6) INS has allowed its organizational structure to become decentralized without adequate controls; (7) INS efforts to improve its management problems must coincide with its continued service and enforcement activities, which include curbing the flow illegal aliens across the border, detaining aliens, identifying and removing illegal and criminal aliens, enforcing alien employment laws, and processing aliens' requests for asylum; and (8) although INS has made progress toward addressing its management problems, it will need sustained commitment and monitoring to ensure that the management problems are corrected and continued congressional oversight to ensure that it is making timely and measurable progress.