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Open Recommendations (41 total)

Immigration Enforcement: Arrests, Removals, and Detentions Varied Over Time and ICE Should Strengthen Data Reporting

GAO-24-106233
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should report data on the total number of detentions of individuals in ICE immigration detention facilities as part of its public reporting on annual detention statistics. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should fully explain the methodology used to calculate and report annual detention statistics included in its public reporting. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Financial Management: Additional Steps Needed to Improve ICE's Budget Projections and Execution

GAO-24-106550
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7 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should ensure that OBPP verifies that ICE program offices follow ICE's policy to have spend plans in place at the beginning of the fiscal year. (Recommendation 3)
Open
DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE will develop a process to ensure ICE program offices have spend plans in place at the beginning of each fiscal year. In November 2024, ICE stated that its program offices submitted their spend plans to OBPP in September 2024. However, we are waiting for documentation from ICE to confirm that the spend plans were in place at the beginning of the fiscal year.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should develop and document a plan to address OBPP's staffing challenges and obtain ICE leadership's endorsement of the plan. The plan could include the following elements: (1) strategies for acquiring and retaining staff, (2) OBPP's goals for improving its staffing, and (3) a description of how OBPP will track progress toward those goals. (Recommendation 9)
Open
DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE is working to address staffing challenges in the Office of Budget and Program Performance. For example, DHS said that ICE is working to identify the root causes of attrition and identify strategies to address staffing challenges. In November 2024, ICE said that it continued to work to fill vacancies and that they expected to implement our recommendation by Spring 2025.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should implement changes to the PER briefing documents to include information that communicates to Congress potential reprogramming and transfers as the need for them becomes apparent to ICE. (Recommendation 7)
Open – Partially Addressed
In response to our report, DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE was working with Congress to change how it presents information in its briefing documents. As of November 2024, ICE had added some information to its PER briefing documents about reprogramming and transfers. However, because we found in our report that ICE was often aware of a need for additional funds but did not always include that information in its briefing documents, we are continuing to monitor the documents to ensure they fully implement this recommendation by including that information going forward.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should ensure that OBPP verifies that ICE program offices follow ICE's policy on updating spend plans. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE will document responsibilities and timelines for reviewing and approving spend plans. ICE updated its guidance in July 2024 to include additional information on how program offices should update their spend plans. However, as of January 2024, to ensure that ICE fully implements this recommendation, we still need to see additional documentation showing that OBPP is verifying that ICE program offices are following ICE's policy.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should ensure that ICE's Program Analysis and Evaluation division periodically assesses ICE's budget models. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE will standardize and document its process for reviewing its budget models. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should implement changes to the PER briefing documents to include ICE's initial budget projections in addition to updated projections. (Recommendation 8)
Open – Partially Addressed
In response to our report, DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE is working with Congress to change how it presents information in its briefing documents. As of November 2024, ICE had started to include initial budget projections in its PER briefing documents. We are continuing to monitor the documents to ensure they fully implement this recommendation by including that information going forward.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should ensure that OBBP verifies that the ICE-wide and program office spend plans are updated to be consistent with each other. (Recommendation 6)
Open – Partially Addressed
DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that ICE will update its guidance to document the criteria for updating and approving spend plans. ICE updated its guidance in July 2024 to include additional information on how program offices should update their spend plans. However, as of January 2024, to ensure that ICE fully implements this recommendation, we still need to see additional documentation showing that OBPP is verifying that ICE-wide and program office spend plans are consistent with each other.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Improvements Needed to Workforce and Expansion Plans for Unit of Native American Law Enforcement Personnel

GAO-24-106385
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The Director of ICE should, after defining the mission and goals of the Shadow Wolves program, determine the staffing needs, to include the skills and number of positions necessary, for the Shadow Wolves program on the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
ICE concurred with this recommendation. In July 2024, ICE provided us documents that described a staffing goal of hiring four additional Shadow Wolves. In addition, in the documents ICE identified the necessary skills for Shadow Wolves program staff. ICE's efforts partially address this recommendation. However, ICE has not performed a workforce analysis to determine the program's staffing needs, including the number and type of personnel the Shadow Wolves unit on the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation needs to meet operational demands. We continue to believe that, once ICE defines the program's goals, determining the program's staffing needs will better position ICE to develop recruitment plans that will help them accomplish program goals. We will continue to monitor ICE's efforts to determine the Shadow Wolves program's staffing needs.
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