Summary: Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO examined the effectiveness of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, particularly its implementation nationwide.
GAO found that: (1) the SAVE system provides quick and positive verification of an alien's immigration status; (2) during a 6-month period, INS detected 734 illegal aliens out of about 13,426 applicants for unemployment compensation benefits; and (3) of the 13,426 cases it examined, approximately 4,100 aliens required secondary verification of their legal status and of those, about 96 percent were legal. GAO also found that: (1) although INS intends to improve its data to ensure accurate, positive primary verifications, such improvement will not occur before the middle of 1988; (2) INS plans to correct the deficiencies in its central system on a case-by-case basis during secondary verification until it implements a nationwide verification system; and (3) since the system is still in the developmental stage, INS has not determined its overall cost.
