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As of October 25, 2020, there are 4812 open recommendations, of which 473 are priority recommendations. Recommendations remain open until they are designated as Closed-implemented or Closed-not implemented.
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Recommendation: To provide reasonable assurance that USCIS's fraud prevention controls are adequate and effectively implemented, and ensure that asylum officers and FDNS immigration officers have the capacity to detect and prevent fraud, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct USCIS to conduct regular fraud risk assessments across the affirmative asylum application process.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security Status: Open Priority recommendation
Comments: In October 2016, DHS indicated that USCIS had established a working group and collected fraud trend information from all eight asylum offices that will be used to inform the development of a risk assessment framework. According to USCIS officials, the Asylum Division, in cooperation with other relevant internal stakeholders such as USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS), completed a draft asylum fraud risk assessment in September 2017. In January 2019, Asylum Division officials told us that they had identified limitations in the data used in the draft assessment. Thus, USCIS was working to complete a revised qualitative risk assessment report for our review. Officials also told us that the report was undergoing additional revisions due to changes in 2019 to the affirmative asylum program, and to reflect updates to the resources dedicated to FDNS's functions. As of October 2020, USCIS anticipates finalizing the report by the end of December 2020. Regularly assessing fraud risks across the affirmative asylum process would provide USCIS more complete information on risks that may affect the integrity of the process and therefore help USCIS target its fraud prevention efforts to those areas that are of highest risk.
