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By
Richard
Irwin,
Editor,
Immigrants' Rights Update
As of late July 2006, staff in 14 of U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services' (USCIS's) busiest district offices had lost track
of 110,000 A-files, according to a Government
Accountability Office (GAO) report that is dated Oct. 27, 2006, but
that was not released until Nov. 28. An A-file is the one central paper
file created for each non–U.S. citizen who has dealings with USCIS or
immigration enforcement personnel — for example, when the person applies
for an immigration benefit or if the person is detained by the Border
Patrol.
The main reason A-files are lost, the GAO investigation found,
is that USCIS staff neglect to update the bureau's computerized National
File Tracking System (NFTS) when, for example, they receive an A-file or
transfer it to another staff person or office. As a result, many
A-files are not actually where the NFTS says they are.
So, for example, "an April 2005 file audit by USCIS's San Diego
district office found that nearly 21 percent of the district's files
(11,731 of 56,092 files audited) were not in the location shown in NFTS,"
according to the GAO report.
USCIS officials interviewed by the GAO suggested that the
staffers who fail to update the NFTS as is necessary if the system is to
work properly may not have received either adequate training or
supervision.
According to the GAO report, USCIS manages over 55 million
A-files, which must be available to adjudicators and other staffers in 4
service centers, 33 district offices, and 8 asylum offices. In fiscal
year 2005, the agency "adjudicated about 7.5 million applications,"
according to the report. The GAO conducted its review from Aug. 2005
through Aug. 2006.
USCIS's inability to keep precise track of
the millions of A-files it manages is felt most acutely by individual
immigrants, who as a result of the mismanagement of their files must
endure delays and multiple fruitless contacts with USCIS staff -- and
may even face being fired from their jobs or suffering other severe,
life-disrupting consequences when USCIS fails to issue in a timely way
immigration benefits and documents for which applicants are eligible.
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