US Citizenship and Immigration Services needs to address vulnerabilities in the process it uses to grant permanent residency, GAO told the House Homeland Security Committee recently.
USCIS initiated a series of benefit fraud and compliance assessments three years ago as the initial step toward mitigating or eliminating vulnerabilities in its processes for granting immigration benefits, including the benefit of lawful permanent residency, according to GAO-09-55.
It said the assessments have revealed that USCIS has approved fraudulent petitions and that verifying petitioner-submitted evidence could have mitigated the fraud.
It also said while four of the assessments, including petitions for skilled and unskilled workers, spouses, and relatives from Yemen, and applications for asylum, have identified vulnerabilities that need to be addressed, USCIS has not established a roadmap with timetables for deciding what actions to take, what USCIS organizational units will be responsible for implementing those actions, and a timetable for implementing agreed-upon actions.
