INS chief pledges to speed up management reforms

The head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Tuesday that the agency will move faster on much-needed management reforms after last week's discovery that a contractor sent a flight school copies of visa approvals for two terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. The flight school received the letters just last week.

The agency's new electronic student visa tracking system, which requires the INS and schools to process all change-of-status applications for foreign students within 30 days, will be fully implemented by the end of this year, INS Commissioner James Ziglar said during a speech at the National Press Club. The agency now uses a paper-based system.

"Changes in INS operations were already being proposed, but last week's incident prompted us to move more swiftly and more publicly," Ziglar said. "I take responsibility for not doing a good job letting the public know how much the agency is doing to improve operations." The 30-day limit for processing applications was supposed to take effect in October, but a new contract and a substantial backlog put the reform on the back burner, Ziglar said.

An INS contractor just recently sent out letters confirming the agency's approval of student visas for terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi to attend a Venice, Fla., flight school. The INS had approved the visas before the Sept. 11 attacks, but schools typically get confirmation letters months later, after an agency contractor enters the data manually into a computer system. The incident prompted President Bush last Thursday to order a broad review of INS operations, including record-keeping and mailing procedures.

Ziglar said he is working closely with Congress and Attorney General John Ashcroft to reorganize the INS into separate law enforcement and service bureaus to increase accountability and improve agency performance. On Friday, the INS replaced four top senior executives at the agency with other career employees. The officials were reassigned to other positions within the Justice Department, according to an INS spokesman. The personnel changes will increase accountability and ensure the agency has the best management team in place, Ziglar said.

The agency also plans to create a chief information officer position and implement an electronic entry and exit system at seaports and airports to track foreigners whose visas have expired, Ziglar said. In 1996, Congress passed a comprehensive immigration reform act that included a provision directing the agency to develop such a system, but the measure has not yet been fully implemented.

"The INS has made substantial progress in the last few years; the situation is not as bad as people believe, but it's also not good," Ziglar told his audience. Ziglar acknowledged the agency's antiquated information technology, which is "too big on information," and "too small on technology," but he also defended the agency contractor who sent the confirmation letters to the flight school.

The terms of the contract called on the contractor to keep copies of student visa approvals 180 days before sending them to schools for their records, Ziglar said. "It doesn't appear that the contractor did anything wrong," Ziglar said. "But it is an understatement to say that the terms of the contract were inefficient and illogical."

Ziglar also acknowledged that the contractor, who processed the documents in October, might not have recognized Atta and Alshehhi as terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. Foreigners apply for visas in this country through the State Department and the INS approves any changes in the status of their visas while they are here. Both Atta and Alshehhi applied for changes in status.

The Bush administration is expected to recommend merging the Customs Service and the INS to form a new border security agency, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Customs is now part of the Treasury Department and INS, which includes the Border Patrol, is part of the Justice Department. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has indicated his support for such an idea since Bush appointed him after Sept. 11.

When asked if he would support a new border agency that would merge the INS and Customs, Ziglar said he supported the president. "I think George W. Bush will go down as one of history's greatest American presidents, and I support great American presidents," Ziglar declared.

Ziglar refused to speculate on how a new border security agency could affect INS employees and their jobs.