Recommendation: The Director of ICE should take steps to document and implement its review process to ensure accuracy in its budget documents.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Status: Open
Comments: ICE provided us with documentation showing the agency has implemented a review process to prioritize all agency resource requests and document management approval. As of June 2020, we are awaiting documentation that demonstrates this process has been implemented and provides an assurance of accuracy in ICE's budget documents. We will continue to monitor and evaluate ICE's actions to close this recommendation.
Recommendation: The Director of ICE should take steps to assess ICE's adult bed rate methodology to determine the most appropriate way to project the adult bed rate, including any inflation rates used.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Status: Open
Comments: As of June 2020, ICE is taking steps to assess the adult bed rate methodology. ICE provided a verification and validation assessment on the adult bed rate conducted to meet the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 requirements. From the documentation provided, it is unclear that the assessment examines the methodology of the adult bed rate. According to ICE officials, the agency is working towards conducting an analysis on the methodology of the adult bed rate calculations. We will continue to monitor and evaluate ICE's actions to close the recommendation.
Recommendation: The Director of ICE should take steps to update ICE's adult bed rate methodology by incorporating necessary changes based on its assessment, and ensure the use of appropriate inflation rates and the removal of family beds from all calculations.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Status: Open
Comments: As part of addressing this recommendation, ICE developed a bed rate calculator that the agency stated ensures the use of proper inflation rates and the removal of family beds. ICE provided documentation demonstrating changes to the calculations of the adult bed rate, including the removal of family beds from its budget calculations. As of June 2020, we are awaiting documentation from ICE that demonstrates the use of appropriate inflation rates. We will continue to monitor and evaluate ICE's actions to close this recommendation.
Recommendation: The Director of ICE should take steps to determine the most appropriate way to project the ADP for use in the congressional budget justification and document the methodology and rationale behind its ADP projection. As part of that determination, ICE should consider the extent to which a statistical model could be used to accurately forecast ADP.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Status: Open
Comments: ICE provided us with documentation on the statistical model and its methodology during the course of our review and utilized the model during the fiscal years 2019 and 2020 budget cycles. ICE used the model to provide a point estimate within a specific confidence interval and documented the interval that the agency used and the reasoning behind the use of that interval. As of June 2020, we are following up with ICE regarding the extent to which the model was used to determine the total number of detention beds.
Recommendation: The Director of ICE should take steps to ensure that ICE's budget estimating process more fully addresses cost estimating best practices.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Status: Open
Comments: As of June 2020, ICE is taking steps to address this recommendation, and has provided documentation. For example, ICE has developed a sliding bed rate scale from conducting a sensitivity analysis and has detailed some of its calculations and assumptions for the adult bed rate. We will continue to work with ICE to obtain additional documentation needed to evaluate the agency's efforts to improve its detention cost estimating practices.
