Bush orders broad review of INS operations

President Bush has ordered a sweeping review of the Immigration and Naturalization Service after a Florida flight school received copies of visa approvals for two terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Bush directed the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate record-keeping and mailing procedures at the INS to discover why the agency sent letters confirming its approval of student visas for terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi to attend a Venice, Fla., flight school after the Sept. 11 attacks. INS approved the visas before the terrorist attacks, but schools usually receive confirmation letters later, after an agency contractor enters the data manually into a computer system. The flight school received the documents Monday-exactly six months after the attacks.

"It is inexcusable when document mismanagement leads to a breakdown of this magnitude," said Attorney General John Ashcroft in a statement. "Individuals will be held responsible for any professional incompetence that led to this failure, and inferior INS quality-control mechanisms will be reformed."

The INS now uses a paper-based system that relies on manual data entry into a computer system to collect and track information on students. The agency is moving to an automated system-the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System-that "will eliminate notification delays by informing all parties simultaneously once the INS adjudication is made," according to a statement from the Justice Department.

"The INS needs to be reformed," Bush said during a press conference Wednesday. "And it's one of the reasons why I called for the separation of the paperwork side of the INS from the enforcement side." In November, Ashcroft announced the administration's plan to reorganize the INS into separate law enforcement and service bureaus with a clear chain of command within each bureau to increase accountability and improve agency performance. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner introduced legislation (H.R. 3231) along these lines in November.

Sensenbrenner sent a letter to INS Commissioner James Ziglar Thursday asking for information on the agency's handling of the visa approvals for Atta and Alshehhi. He also sponsored legislation (H.R. 3525), passed by the House in December, that aims to strengthen the foreign student tracking system and requires new biometric visas that carry distinctive physical characteristics of visa-holders. H.R. 3525 is now being considered by the Senate.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, wants to abolish the INS altogether and create a new border security agency that would house the enforcement activities of the INS, the Border Patrol, the Coast Guard and the Customs Service under one director. In October, Tancredo criticized the INS for "abandoning their primary role of enforcement" and "not doing the job they were empowered to do."

Lawmakers, administration officials and the General Accounting Office have called for reform of the INS for years. In 1996, Congress passed a comprehensive immigration reform act that included a provision directing the agency to develop an electronic entry and exit system at seaports and airports to track foreigners whose visas had expired. But the measure has not yet been fully implemented.

A cursory search on GAO's Web site brings up approximately 25 reports since January 1997 that deal directly with INS management challenges, including illegal immigration and weaknesses in the agency's information technology and claims processing systems.

A report issued by the Justice Department's inspector general in March 1998 said that the U.S. border with Canada was an easy crossing point for terrorists. Two of the suspected terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks are believed to have entered Maine from Canada. And law enforcement officials have said that several of the suspected terrorists who entered the U.S. on business and travel visas overstayed those visas.

A December 2001 report from Justice's inspector general and the General Accounting Office criticized the INS for not tracking down or penalizing aliens who fail to appear before the agency when required by law.

A January GAO report found that the agency had done little to combat its long-standing problem with benefit fraud.

The INS, which plans to complete its reorganization by fiscal 2003, is working on improving its visa tracking system. The agency's Data Management Improvement Act Task Force, made up of leaders from government and industry, plans to issue a request for proposals later this spring for an electronic visa tracking system.

The INS has also started entering data on 314,000 "absconders," who have violated immigration laws by overstaying their visas, into the National Crime Information Center, a database maintained by the FBI. The database includes more than 40 million records on criminals, suspects and stolen property and is available to federal, state and local law enforcement personnel.

In addition to the FBI, the INS is working with the Treasury Department to identify sources of terrorist funding and with the State Department to monitor the entry and exit of foreigners. In a speech last month before the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates for immigration interests, Ziglar said employees are committed to management changes designed to help the INS protect the nation's borders while also better serving a growing population of immigrants.

"INS folks want to be perceived differently," he said at the time. "They want to be perceived for what they are, not what people think they are."