Budgeting for
Immigration
Enforcement
A Path to
Better Performance
Committee on Estimating Costs of Immigration
Enforcement in the Department of Justice
Steve Redburn, Peter Reuter, and Malay Majmundar, Editors
Committee on Law and Justice
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract Number DJJ09-C-1916 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Justice. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2011). Budgeting for Immigration Enforcement: A Path to Better Performance. Committee on Estimating Costs of Immigration Enforcement in the Department of Justice. S. Redburn, P. Reuter, and M. Majmundar, Eds. Committee on Law and Justice, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
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COMMITTEE ON ESTIMATING COSTS OF IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
PETER REUTER (Chair), School of Public Policy and Department of Criminology, University of Maryland
FRANK D. BEAN, Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, University of California, Irvine
JONATHAN CAULKINS, Heinz College and Qatar Campus, Carnegie Mellon University
SUSAN E. CLARKE, Department of Political Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
WAYNE A. CORNELIUS, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego
VICTORIA A. GREENFIELD, Department of Economics, U.S. Naval Academy
JOHN R. HIPP, Department or Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine
DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, Office of Population Research, Princeton University
DORIS MEISSNER, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, Migration Policy Institute
C. RICHARD NEU, The RAND Corporation, Mexico City, Mexico
PIA ORRENIUS, Department of Research, Federal Reserve Bank, Dallas
ROBERTO OSEGUEDA, Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, University of Texas, El Paso
JEFFREY S. PASSEL, Pew Research Center, Pew Hispanic Center, Washington, DC
CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ,* Harvard University School of Law and New York University School of Law
MARC R. ROSENBLUM, Domestic and Social Policy, Congressional Research Service, U.S. Congress
PETER H. SCHUCK, Yale Law School, Yale University
STEVE REDBURN, Study Director
MALAY MAJMUNDAR, Program Officer
DANIELLE JOHNSON, Senior Program Assistant
ALAN B. RHINESMITH, Consultant
* Resigned January 2011 to accept an appointment at the U.S. Department of Justice.
COMMITTEE ON LAW AND JUSTICE 2011
JAMES Q. WILSON (Chair), Clough Center, Department of Political Science, Boston College, and Pepperdine University
PHILIP J. COOK (Vice Chair), Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University
CARL C. BELL, Community Mental Health Council, Inc., Chicago, IL
ROBERT D. CRUTCHFIELD, Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle
GARY LAFREE, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland
JANET L. LAURITSEN, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri
GLENN C. LOURY, Department of Economics, Brown University
CHARLES F. MANSKI, Department of Economics, Northwestern University
TRACEY L. MEARES, Yale Law School, Yale University
TERRIE E. MOFFITT, Department of Psychology, Duke University
RUTH D. PETERSON, Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice Research Center, Ohio State University
ROBERT J. SAMPSON, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
JEREMY TRAVIS, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
DAVID WEISBURD, Department of Administration and Justice, George Mason University
PAUL K. WORMELI, Integrated Justice Information Systems, Ashburn, VA
JANE L. ROSS, Director
BARBARA BOYD, Administrative Associate
Preface
Border enforcement to control illegal immigration has been a prominent U.S. public policy issue for 20 years. Over those two decades there has been a huge increase in the federal resources devoted to deterring, apprehending, and punishing illegal immigrants, predominantly at the border with Mexico. Most of the increased resources in recent years have gone to agencies in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is often seen as playing catch-up in handling the numerous detainees apprehended by DHS.
This panel was formed in response to a congressional concern about how well DOJ was preparing its congressional requests for border enforcement resources. Budgeting is difficult under most circumstances, given that it is about projecting needs 18 to 24 months in advance. It is made even more complex when the agency has to anticipate not only the effects of actions by another agency in the future, but also the influence of changing labor market conditions in Mexico and the United States, which are important drivers of the number of immigrants trying to enter this country illegally. This report aims to provide a better understanding of the context in which budget decisions are made for DOJ’s immigration enforcement functions and how that shapes the budgeting challenge.
On behalf of the committee, I thank the many individuals and organizations who assisted us in our work and without whom this study could not have been completed. The committee relied heavily on two key staff members: Steve Redburn both provided excellent guidance in our dealing
with agencies and contributed a great deal to drafting and redrafting the text. Malay Majmundar was responsible for much of the original research and legal analysis that was critical to our work, as well as drafting two chapters of the report. We also thank Danielle Johnson for her excellent management of our meetings, mailings, and all other administrative tasks. Alan B. Rhinesmith, a former deputy associate director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a former senior policy adviser to the Congressional Oversight Panel of Congress, was commissioned to write a paper on recent experience in budgeting that contributed significantly to Chapter 5. We also thank several other researchers for their commissioned contributions to the writing, data analysis, and case studies: Adam Boessen, in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine; Micah Gell-Redman, in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego; Annie Miller, in the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado; and Doralina Skidmore and Grant Wille, at the James E. Rodgers College of Law at the University of Arizona. We are grateful for the assistance of Professor Gabriel (Jack) Chin of the University of Arizona College of Law in connection with our field work in the Tucson area.
Others who provided valuable assistance to the committee at various stages of its work include Penny Fleming, Financial Liaison Office, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts; the late Judge John M. Roll, Chief U.S. District Judge, Tucson, Arizona; Jolene Lauria-Sullens, DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Controller; Karin O’Leary, Budget Director; Sennen Salapare and others on the budget staff of the DOJ, Justice Management Division; Carl Caulk, U.S. Marshals Service, DOJ; Jim Boden and staff, OMB; Steve Mertens and staff, OMB; Juan Osuna, DOJ; Michael Hoefer and John Simanski, Office of Immigration Statistics, DHS; and John Schultz, Office of the Director, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DHS.
Many individuals at the National Research Council (NRC) assisted the committee. We thank Kirsten Sampson Snyder, who shepherded the report through the NRC review process, Eugenia Grohman, who edited the draft report, and Yvonne Wise for processing the report through final production.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the
integrity of the deliberative process. We thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Lenni B. Benson, professor of law, New York Law School; Asa Hutchinson, senior partner, The Asa Hutchinson Law Group, PLC, Rogers, Arizona; Daniel A. Nussbaum, Department of Operations Research, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California; Anne Joseph O’Connell, professor of law, Boalt Hall, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley; Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, co-director, RAND Drug Policy Research Center, senior economist, RAND Corporation, and faculty research fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research; Anne Morrison Piehl, Department of Economics and director, Program in Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, and research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research; Irene Rubin, professor emerita, Division of Public Administration and Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University; and Mary C. Waters, M.E. Zukerman professor of sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. Emmett Keeler of the RAND Graduate School and the University of California, Los Angeles, and John E. Rolph at the University of Southern California oversaw the review of this report. Appointed by the NRC, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Finally, I thank my colleagues on the committee for their enthusiasm, hard work, and collaborative spirit in writing this report.
Peter Reuter, Chair
Committee on Estimating Costs of Immigration Enforcement in the Department of Justice
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Contents
Enforcement Responsibilities: Overview
Study Background and Committee Charge
Study Approach and Report Structure
2 Exploring the Budgeting Problem
3 Recent Patterns of Unauthorized Immigration
Stocks and Flows of Unauthorized Immigrants
Demographic History and Profiles
Cross-Border Flows of Mexican Migrants
Conclusion: Implications for Budgeting
Immigration-Related Criminal Charges—Regional Variations in Enforcement
Discretion, Constraints, Adaptation, and Coordination
5 Budgeting for DOJ Immigration Enforcement
The Budget Development Process
The Particular Challenges of Budgeting for Immigration Enforcement
7 Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusions: What Has Been Learned
B Efforts to Model Workload and Resource Requirements
ACAP |
Alien Criminal Apprehension Program |
ADAA |
Anti-Drug Abuse Act |
AEDPA |
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act |
AFF |
Asset Forfeiture Fund |
ATF |
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives |
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BIA |
Board of Immigration Appeals |
BOP |
Bureau of Prisons |
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CAP |
Criminal Alien Program |
CBP |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection |
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DEA |
Drug Enforcement Administration |
DHS |
U.S. Department of Homeland Security |
DOJ |
U.S. Department of Justice |
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ENOE |
Encuesta Nacional de Ocupacion y Empleo |
EOIR |
Executive Office for Immigration Review |
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FBI |
Federal Bureau of Investigation |
FEDSIM |
Federal Systems Integration and Management Center |
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GAO |
U.S. Government Accountability Office (formerly U.S. General Accounting Office) |
GDP |
gross domestic product |
GPRA |
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 |
GPRAMA |
GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 |
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ICE |
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement |
IIRIRA |
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act |
INA |
Immigration and Nationality Act |
INEGI |
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografía |
INS |
Immigration and Naturalization Service |
IRCA |
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 |
IRP |
Institutional Removal Program |
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MMFRP |
Mexican Migration Field Research Program |
MMP |
Mexican Migration Project |
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NAFTA |
North American Free Trade Agreement |
NSEERS |
National Security Entry-Exit Registration System |
NTA |
Notice to Appear |
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ODO |
Office of Detention Oversight |
ODPP |
Office of Detention Policy and Planning |
OFDT |
Office of the Federal Detention Trustee |
OFO |
Office of Field Operations |
OJJDP |
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention |
OMB |
U.S. Office of Management and Budget |
OPA |
Office of Pardon Attorney |
OTMs |
undocumented immigrants other than Mexicans |
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PTS |
Prisoner Tracking System |
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SAUSA(s) |
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney(s) |
SAVE |
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements |
SERA |
structured expedited removal advisement process |
SEVIS |
Student and Exchange Visitor Information System |
SSA |
Social Security Administration |
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TRAC |
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse |
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USAO |
U.S. Attorney’s Office |
USCIS |
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service |
USMS |
U.S. Marshals Service |
US-VISIT |
U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology |
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VCCLEA |
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act |