PDF《SEX OFFENDERS》

SEX OFFENDERS ICE Could Better Inform Offenders It Supervises of Registration Responsibilities and Notify Jurisdictions when Offenders Are Removed Report to Congressional Requesters September

2013 GAO-13-832 United States Government Accountability Office United States Government Accountability Office Highlights of GAO-13-832, a report to congressional requesters September

2013 SEX OFFENDERS ICE Could Better Inform Offenders It Supervises of Registration Responsibilities and Notify Jurisdictions when Offenders Are Removed Why GAO Did This Study ICE-ERO uses orders of supervision to release from custody criminal aliens― including sex offenders―who have been ordered to be removed from the United States, but cannot be removed for various reasons or detained indefinitely under U.

S. Supreme Court precedent. In July 2006, SORNA was enacted, which established minimum standards for sex offender registration and notification. Congressional requesters asked GAO to assess registration of alien sex offenders. This report addresses the extent to which alien sex offenders (1) under ICE-ERO order of supervision are registered and (2) who are removed or released under ICE-ERO order of supervision are informed of registration requirements and relevant jurisdiction officials are notified about these offenders. GAO analyzed a representative sample of

131 of 1,309 alien sex offenders who were under orders of supervision as of September 2012. GAO also interviewed officials from ICE-ERO, the SMART Office, and other relevant federal, state registry and local law enforcement agencies. What GAO Recommends GAO recommends, among other things, that ICE-ERO (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 SMART and others, consider options for notifying jurisdictions about removed offenders. ICE agreed with the recommendations. What GAO Found On the basis of GAO'

s analysis of a representative sample of

131 alien sex offenders under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervision, GAO estimates that as of September 2012,

72 percent of alien sex offenders were registered,

22 percent were not required to register, and

5 percent did not register but should have. According to officials, offenders were not required to register for various reasons, such as the offense not requiring registration in some states. Of the

6 offenders in GAO'

s sample that should have registered, officials from ICE'

s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO) field offices informed

4 of their registration requirements. However, officials at some of these field offices identified several reasons why they did not ensure that these offenders actually registered. For example, the offender may have moved and no longer resided in the area of responsibility for that particular field office. ICE had not informed the remaining

2 offenders of their registration requirements. Alien sex offenders are not consistently informed of potential registration requirements, and relevant jurisdiction officials―that is, state, territorial, and tribal sex offender registry and law enforcement officials―are not consistently notified when an offender is removed from the country or released. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of

2006 (SORNA) and other federal laws identify when sex offenders and relevant jurisdiction officials should be notified. However, the agencies that have these notification responsibilities are limited in their ability to provide information to and about alien sex offenders, in part because they do not know when ICE-ERO will release or remove these offenders. ICE-ERO has a procedure in place to inform alien sex offenders who are being removed about potential registration requirements, but not alien sex offenders who are being released into the community under supervision, primarily because ICE-ERO is uncertain whether it has a responsibility to do so. ICE-ERO also does not consistently notify relevant jurisdiction officials when an alien sex offender is removed or released under supervision, for similar reasons. However, officials from the Department of Justice'