American Samoa: Performing a Risk Assessment Would Better Inform U.S. Agencies of the Risks Related to Acceptance of Certificates of Identity

In 2010, we found that American Samoa's immigration operations may pose risks to American Samoa and the rest of the United States because of vulnerabilities we found with the process used by the Government of American Samoa to issue Certificates of Identity (CI) for travel to the United States in lieu of passports. As a result, we recommended a risk assessment to determine the extent and significance of possible risks associated with aliens inappropriately obtaining CIs to travel to the United States from American Samoa. As of the end of October 2013, the Department of Homeland Security sent GAO correspondence stating, in effect, that it has no plans to conduct the risk assessment and so we amended the recommendation to show it as being "closed-not implemented." Then, on October 23, 2019, the Office of the Attorney General for American Samoa issued GAO a letter to document that it had recently implemented new procedures for processing applications for CIs that include enhanced security procedures that address vulnerabilities GAO identified in 2010. The new, enhanced security procedures include: development of a new Border Management System (BMS) that issues each CI a unique number that it can track and provide real time information on regarding any arrivals or departures or any over-stayers; and new CIs that are issued on security paper to deter forgery, include an embossed stamp over the Attorney General's seal, and use a laser-engraved photograph of the traveler rather than a glued-on photograph as was previously used. With these new, enhanced security procedures and capabilities, we believe that the Government of American Samoa has addressed the vulnerabilities we identified in 2010 and so consider this recommendation to be "Closed-Implemented."