Processing Soviet Refugees

T-NSIAD-89-21: Published: Mar 30, 1989. Publicly Released: Mar 30, 1989.

Additional Materials:

Contact:

Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov

GAO discussed its review of U.S. processing of Soviet refugees. GAO found that: (1) the United States admitted over 20,000 Soviet refugees in fiscal year 1988, and that number was expected to increase; (2) the Administration requested about $85 million in supplemental funds to support about 18,000 additional refugee allocations; (3) the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) denied from 10 to 13 percent of Soviet refugee applications at the embassies GAO visited; (4) INS and consular officials believed that most Soviet applicants were economic, rather than political refugees; (5) most applicants rejected humanitarian parole status because they could not obtain the required affidavits, or lacked relatives who were able to support them financially; (6) in 1988, INS began adjudicating Soviet refugee applications on a case-by-case basis; (7) INS inconsistently applied its adjudication procedures, as evidenced by the high rate of reversals on appeal; and (8) INS cited inexperience, inadequate training, work loads, and lack of evidence supporting claims as reasons for the inconsistent adjudications.

Oct 15, 2018

Sep 27, 2018

Sep 20, 2018

Sep 18, 2018

Sep 6, 2018

Sep 5, 2018

Aug 30, 2018

Aug 8, 2018

Jul 30, 2018

Looking for more? Browse all our products here