Summary: The process for preventing ineligible noncitizens from obtaining federal student financial aid involves identifying applicants with questionable eligibility and referring their names to financial aid administrators at colleges for follow-up. The Education Department checks all financial aid applicants for U.S. citizenship, using records at the Social Security Administration (SSA). For applicants who are not U.S. citizens, the Department checks records at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to determine eligibility. The INS and SSA screening techniques identified more than 500,000 potentially ineligible noncitizens in award year 1996-97. However, financial aid administrators at four colleges GAO contacted estimated that virtually all the applicants flagged through SSA and INS screening were ultimately able to demonstrate their eligibility for student aid. No one knows whether or how many ineligible citizens are nonetheless able to qualify for student financial aid. The Education Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has not opened and resolved any investigations of applicants who falsified their citizenship status and received aid since the SSA verification process was introduced last year. The OIG did, however, identify 26 cases in which ineligible noncitizens received $332,000 in financial aid between 1993 and 1995. Almost half of these recipients were illegal aliens. These cases were referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
