Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO examined selected Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) enforcement activities relating to its delivery bond management to identify: (1) weaknesses in the INS bonding system that would contribute to bond-breaching problems; and (2) issues that INS should consider if it changes its bonding system.
GAO found that: (1) lack of agency-wide guidance has resulted in different bond amounts for aliens with similar backgrounds; (2) aliens breached bonds in 72 percent of the cases in which immigration judges reduced bond amounts and in 44 percent in which they did not; (3) INS was not sending notices to obligors for them to notify aliens of their scheduled hearings, thereby eliminating obligors' liability for nonappearance; (4) INS took an average of 130 days to bill obligors after it determined that bonds were breached, resulting in a backlog of unbilled breached bonds at an interest cost of $140 per day; (5) the billing problem in some regional offices resulted from low debt collection priority on unbreached bonds, insufficient staffing, and limited funds to pay overtime; (6) INS failed to notify its regional personnel of obligor appeals in order to suspend billing; and (7) INS proposed a formal rulemaking to eliminate the use of surety bonds and change to a cash-only bond system.
