[Dryerase] Alarm!--Eye on the INS--Of Paperwork, resignations & flaming hoops

[The Alarm!Newswire]

Eye on the INS

Of paperwork, resignations and flaming hoops

By Michelle Stewart
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

Where is James Ziglar nowadays? What is going on with the Department of 
Homeland Security? Curiously these two questions might be linked, in 
the sense that they are both contemporary indicators of INS 
health—which is most certainly failing.

After 9/11, many believed the only way to breath life into the INS was 
to file it under the Department of Homeland Security (DHLS) and 
reimagine the agency as more devoted to security than to paperwork. 
However, as the anniversary of 9/11 came and passed, so too has 
interest in the DHLS—seems that the INS may not find life support via 
the DLHS since the DHLS itself is dying a slow death on the Senate 
floor. Perhaps, jumbling together some 170,000 plus employees that are 
involved in over 20 federal agencies and 17 unions is a bit 
tricky—especially when the federal government is trying to strip union 
rights out of the DHLS bill. Tricky, and this debate on Capitol Hill 
will likely result in the absolute failure of the DHLS.

Without the DHLS, the INS is left to answer for its own mistakes and 
shortcomings—many of which are perfect illustrations of bureaucratic 
inefficiency.

A joke you say...
Indeed, the INS has seen many tragi-comic moments over the past year. 
Arguably the most notable came when the agency issued visas for the 
9/11 hijackers to attend flight school, many months after the Twin 
Towers had crumbled. Chewed out thoroughly in the media and on Capitol 
Hill, James Ziglar—the new commissioner of the INS at the time—fumbled 
around criticism and used the visa fiasco as illustration that the 
agency needed to be reconfigured. Ziglar relied on a staple response, 
saying his hands were tied until the agency was divided into divisions 
that focused on administration and border security. To the rescue was 
the proposed DHLS. Proponents agreed with weary Ziglar and said that 
the INS and the FBI could be reconceived under the umbrella of a larger 
agency.

For the INS, the failure of the DHLS may serve to further illustrate 
the ridiculous condition of the INS. The INS has gone full-force in 
drafting and implementing large-scale policy changes, but it lacks the 
infrastructure to enforce its many new laws and provisions. Indeed, the 
INS is no longer seen as simply inept; rather, it is inept and becoming 
slightly senile.

Don’t make me stop this car...
Much like the parent who constantly threatens punishment for every 
offense commited on a roadtrip, but never really stops the car, the INS 
has been running willy-nilly, ordering immigrants and visitors to 
comply with various programs—but of these new provisions, the INS lacks 
the capacity to enforce its demands. The bark-worse-than-bite situation 
can seem rather funny from an outside perspective. However, consider 
the random ramblings of this agency, the fear with which immigrants are 
forced to live with as they attempt to comply with all these new 
demands, when the final realization is that the agency has neither the 
ability nor the manpower to enforce its demands. Comical, perhaps, for 
those who don’t have to run frantic with each demand from this agency. 
Comical, perhaps, if your future isn’t dictated by an agency so 
oblivious to its own ineptitude. To best understand the current 
condition let’s take a look at an example:

During the summer, Ziglar (when he was still seen in public) announced 
that the INS would be renewing an archaic law that required all 
immigrants report a change of address within ten days of moving. The 
law was over 50-years-old, and had not been enforced in nearly 45 
years. The announced penalty for failure to comply was either a fine or 
deportation (INS loves to embrace the extremeties). Immigrants heard 
the call, and 500,00–700,000 people submitted the change of address 
card. A month later, the INS announced it didn’t have the time to 
process the cards.

Of course this didn’t stop the agency from trying to deport a Middle 
Eastern man for failing to comply. However, an immigration judge 
stepped in and halted the deporation, pointing out that if the agency 
had not enforced the law since 1958, how was the man supposed to 
understand he was subject to it? The INS has responded by turning on 
their computers and revising a reported 30 forms to help publicize the 
enforcement of the law. Why are they publicizing this law, when the 
change of address cards apparently end up in the circular file?

Take this job and shove it...
Is apparently the motto for many INS workers, making it increasingly 
clear why none of the paperwork is being handled when it is filed: 
there’s no one around to do it.

According to a recent article in The Oregonian, “[O]fficers are 
quitting, sometimes whole shifts at a time. One out of four agents in 
Arizona left during the past year. In the San Diego area, 30 to 40 
agents turn in their badges each week. The national turnover rate for 
Border Patrol agents has almost doubled this year, to nearly 19%.”  Of 
course, the further implication is that if the DHLS does succeed on 
Capitol Hill, more agents will leave out of frustration over the lack 
of union protection in the new agency.

Although the INS has been asked to build its numbers—part of the extra 
one billion dollars added to the agency’s budget was earmarked for 
hiring more agents—it is obviously failing. More people seem to be 
leaving than entering the field.

For these and other reasons, it is interesting to then see what the INS 
has accomplished with its inflated budget and heightened sense of 
authority.

We know that many people went into detention after 9/11; however, that 
was largely the job of the Department of Justice rather than INS. We 
know that a lot of people died in the desert over the past year; 
however, that was largely the result of Operation Gatekeeper, which has 
been in effect for numerous years. We know that a lot of people applied 
for citizenship—an increase of 63% was reported over the past 
year—however, this was due to people fearful of being deported after 
9/11, not because of some bang-up welcoming project by the INS. We also 
know that waiting periods for some residency and visa paperwork was 
reduced from 30 months to eleven; however, this was the result of 
previous years of work to expedite the permanent residency process. So 
what has the INS successfully done in the past year with its inflated 
budget? Well, they report to have successfully targeted and identified 
some 2,200 illegal airport workers—whew, I feel much safer, and only at 
a cost of approximately $454,545.50 each!

The point is that the INS is not becoming streamlined with its 
bolstered budget, and the DHLS is not going to be a knight in shining 
armor. Instead, we are left with an agency that is in the process of 
losing its commissioner—Ziglar annouced his resignation in August—and 
is lacking the common sense to pull back on its exteme measures. The 
INS is trying to crawl out from under the rock of ridicule, and in 
doing so, it is inflicting itself on the immigrant population.

So, Ziglar remains in seclusion, striking days off the calendar until 
he can “return to the private sector,” and the agency fumbles along 
randomly barking orders into the dark. At the core of this crisis is 
the immigrant who must keep abreast of the list of demands, and pay the 
various fees, never knowing if the previous hoop she jumped through 
will really be the last, or if the next one will be on fire.

It seems that the immigrant is the plaything of the INS, as the agency 
lolls about awaiting the outcome of the DHLS.
 
      All content Copyleft © 2002 by The Alarm! Newspaper. Except where 
noted otherwise, this material may be copied and distributed freely in 
whole or in part by anyone except where used for commercial purposes or 
by government agencies.