Recommendation: 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.
Agency: Department of Justice: Executive Office for Immigration Review
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: In December 2019, EOIR officials told us that EOIR is continuing to develop an agency-wide strategic plan that will address workforce planning, among other issues. In addition, EOIR completed a review of the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge workforce in October 2018, which resulted in a new organizational structure and staffing plan for each court. According to EOIR officials, the staffing plan addresses and mitigates gaps and updates position descriptions to more clearly define roles and responsibilities. To fully address our recommendation, EOIR needs to continue 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.
Recommendation: To better address EOIR's immigration judge staffing needs, the Director of EOIR should: (1) assess the immigration judge hiring process to identify opportunities for efficiency; (2) use the assessment results to develop a hiring strategy that targets short- and long-term human capital needs; and (3) implement any corrective actions related to the hiring process resulting from this assessment.
Agency: Department of Justice: Executive Office for Immigration Review
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: In April 2017, the Attorney General approved a revised Immigration Judge hiring process. As part of the development of the revised process, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, in consultation with EOIR, assessed the immigration judge hiring process, identified opportunities for efficiency, and proposed changes to the hiring process that address those opportunities. In December 2019, EOIR officials told us that EOIR is continuing to develop an agency-wide strategic plan that will address the immigration judge hiring process, among other issues. To fully implement our recommendation, EOIR will need to continue to improve its hiring process by developing a hiring strategy targeting short- and long-term human capital needs.
Recommendation: To help ensure that EOIR meets its cost and schedule expectations for ECAS, the EOIR Director should document and implement an oversight plan that is consistent with best practices for overseeing IT projects, including (1) establishing how the oversight body is to monitor program performance and progress toward expected cost, schedule, and benefits; (2) ensuring that corrective actions are identified and assigned to the appropriate parties at the first sign of cost, schedule, or performance slippages; and (3) ensuring that corrective actions are tracked until the desired outcomes are achieved.
Agency: Department of Justice: Executive Office for Immigration Review
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: As of April 2019, EOIR reported that it had selected the EOIR Investment Review Board as the ECAS oversight body with the EOIR Office of Information Technology directly responsible for the management of the ECAS program. Since that time, EOIR has shared documents with us that, according to EOIR, collectively serve as its oversight plan for ECAS. In particular, in January 2020, EOIR provided a copy of its Investment Review Guidance, a document that outlines the process, roles and responsibilities, and criteria it uses to assess selected IT investments, including ECAS. EOIR also provided documentation illustrating assessment of the ECAS investment performance towards expected schedule and benefits, and identification of areas where performance was not deemed very good or excellent. However, the documentation EOIR provided does not assign corrective actions to appropriate parties or establish how EOIR is monitoring program performance and progress toward expected costs. To fully address this recommendation, EOIR should document and implement a plan that describes how the EOIR Investment Review Board and OIT will oversee the full implementation of ECAS, including how these bodies will, consistent with best practices for overseeing IT projects, monitor program performance and progress toward expected costs; assign corrective actions to the appropriate parties at the first sign of cost, schedule, or performance slippages; and ensure that corrective actions are tracked until the desired outcomes are achieved.
Recommendation: To provide further assurance that EOIR's use of VTC in immigration hearings is outcome-neutral, the Director of EOIR should use these and other data to assess any effects of VTC on immigration hearings and, as appropriate, address any issues identified through such an assessment.
Agency: Department of Justice: Executive Office for Immigration Review
Status: Open
Comments: In December 2019, EOIR modified its case management system so that users must manually select the hearing medium type--telephonic, VTC, or in-person--when scheduling a hearing. In February 2018, EOIR also reported that it initiated a pilot project to collect data on Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) appeals in which the use of VTC formed some basis for the appeal. These efforts should provide EOIR more complete and reliable data it can use to assess the effects of VTC on immigration hearings. To fully address this recommendation, EOIR should analyze the data it collects through the change to its case management system and through its collection of data on appeals in which the use of VTC formed the basis for the appeal, analyze those data to assess the effects of VTC on immigration hearings and, as appropriate, address any issues identified through such an assessment.
Recommendation: To better assess court performance and use data to identify potential management challenges, the Director of EOIR should update policies and procedures to ensure the timely and accurate recording of Notices to Appear.
Agency: Department of Justice: Executive Office for Immigration Review
Status: Open
Comments: In January 2020, EOIR officials reported that the agency was taking steps to implement electronic filing of Notices to Appear which they anticipated would ensure the timely and accurate recording of Notices to Appear. At that time, EOIR officials estimated that it would take 2 years to implement electronic filing of Notices to Appear at all existing immigration courts. In the interim, to fully implement this recommendation, EOIR should update its policies and procedures to better ensure the timely and accurate recording of Notices to Appear.
