NCJ Number
243596
Date Published
September 2013
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office examines efforts by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to better inform alien sex offenders about their responsibilities and notify jurisdictions about the status of the offenders.
Abstract
This report was produced by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) for use by congressional requestors to assess the registration of alien sex offenders. The GAO examined efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to better inform offenders about their responsibilities and notify jurisdictions about the change in status for these offenders. Using a sample of 131 alien sex offenders under ICE supervision, the GAO estimated that 72 percent of alien sex offenders registered with the relevant jurisdictions, 22 percent were not required to register, and 5 percent did not register but should have. These findings suggest that ICE officials are not consistent in their efforts to inform these offenders of the need to register with the relevant jurisdiction. In addition, ICE officials are not consistent in their efforts to inform jurisdictions when an offender has been removed from the country or released from custody. The study found that despite the Federal law requiring notification, agencies that have notification responsibilities are limited in their efforts due to a lack of policies outlining the requirements of ICE officials. As a result of these findings, the GAO recommends that, among other things, ICE-Enforcement and Removal Operations (1) set a deadline for its review of options for providing notifications to and about alien sex offenders under supervision and (2) in consultation with the Department of Justice's Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) office and others, consider options for notifying jurisdictions about removed offenders. Figures and appendixes