January 15, 2003

Updates from the INS Monthly Statistical Report

The following excerpts are derived from the INS Monthly Statistical Report for November 2002. The complete, original reports are available on the INS website.

November 2002 total inspections decreased about 1,299,379 compared to October 2002. The same comparison for last fiscal year showed an increase of about 750,047.

About 13 million U.S. citizens were admitted at INS ports of entry during November 2002, compared to approximately 22 million aliens admitted during the same month.

The number of inspections has not reached the levels experienced before September 11, 2001. The seasonally adjusted inspections decreased 24 percent between August 2001 and October 2001, but have increased 11 percent since then. The total number of seasonally adjusted inspections has been fairly stable since December 2001.

The U.S. Border Patrol made 47,731 apprehensions along the southwest border during November 2002, a 47 percent increase when compared to November 2001. Voluntary returns conducted by Border Patrol agents increased by 43 percent from a year ago to 43,756.

Applications and petitions for immigration benefits in November 2002 decreased 21 percent compared to the number received in November 2001. November approvals were down 25 percent, while denials increased by 25 percent when compared to November 2001.

Total immigration application pending cases reached 4,601,778, a 14 percent increase when compared to November 2001.

The end of year inventory of pending applications was conducted in September, and as a result, pending application counts may change over several subsequent months.

Naturalization receipts in November 2002 decreased 54 percent while approvals/oaths were up 7 percent and denials were down 27 percent when compared to November 2001. For the first two months of fiscal year 2003, 73,389 applicants for naturalization took the oath of citizenship.

Total removals for November increased 6 percent compared to the same month a year before. In November 2002, INS removed 10,810 aliens from the United States, 4,981 of these aliens were criminals.

Preliminary data indicate that total removals in fiscal year 2003 have increased 15 percent compared to fiscal year 2002. In fiscal year 2003, expedited removals have increased 45 percent compared to fiscal year 2002 and other types of removals have increased 10 percent. Non-expedited removals are 81 percent of total removals. In fiscal year 2002 non-expedited removals were 77 percent of total removals.

Preliminary data indicate that removals of criminal aliens (including expedited) have decreased 4 percent in fiscal year 2003. Non-expedited criminal removals also decreased 4 percent.

Successful completions of criminal alien cases for November 2002 increased 1 percent when compared to November 2001, while the same comparison for employer completions showed an increase of 31 percent. Fraud completions in November 2002 remained unchanged when compared to the same month last year, while smuggling completions increased by 22 cases or 138 percent.

The number of applications for asylum in November 2002 decreased 24 percent compared to the number filed in November 2001. The pending caseload was 7 percent lower than in the same month last year.

Nationals of the People’s Republic of China submitted the most asylum applications in November 2002, followed by Colombia and Mexico.

Slightly more than 86 percent of the pending caseload involves aliens whose cases may be adjudicated under one of the provisions of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997 (NACARA) or the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (HRIFA) rather than through an asylum process. The pending caseload excluding those special-group cases is approximately 41,500 cases.