Summary: In response to a legislative requirement, GAO surveyed implementation and enforcement of the Immigration Reform and Control Act's (IRCA) employer sanction provisions to determine whether the: (1) Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and other federal agencies satisfactorily carried out IRCA; and (2) provisions caused a widespread pattern of discrimination against U.S. citizens or others or created an unnecessary regulatory burden on employers.
GAO found that: (1) although INS continued to educate employers while increasing enforcement, 22 percent of the employers GAO surveyed were not aware of IRCA, and 20 percent did not clearly understand major IRCA provisions; (2) as of September 1988, INS had recorded 452 violations for employing unauthorized aliens and about 4,700 violations for not completing required forms; and (3) about half of the 1.9 million employers who were aware of the law hired at least one employee who had not completed the required form. GAO also found that: (1) INS did not systematically analyze data on unauthorized aliens' use of counterfeit documents; (2) INS did not distinguish between employers who voluntarily complied with the act before receiving a notice of inspection and those that it brought into compliance through inspection; and (3) INS and the Department of Labor (DOL) did not consistently review employers' payroll records to verify that there were no other employees hired who had not completed the required form. In addition, GAO found that: (1) the number of discrimination charges filed with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and data on IRCA-related discrimination did not establish a pattern of discrimination; and (2) there was insufficient information to determine whether the employer sanction provisions caused an unnecessary regulatory burden.
