Immigration services job competition moves forward

Recent protests by lawmakers and an array of interest groups have not changed the Homeland Security Department's plans to put immigration services jobs up for competition within the next 10 months, according to a department spokesman.

"A decision has been made, and we are moving forward," said Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within Homeland Security.

When BCIS Director Eduardo Aguirre Jr. announced the public-private competition on Aug. 1, he had not determined how many of his agency's 1,143 immigration officer and contact representative positions he would put up for bids. Since then, he has reached a decision to compete all of the jobs, Knocke said.

Officials are still hammering out the details, including whether the competition will take place on a national or local level, according to Knocke. Later this month, BCIS will post a formal invitation for contractors to bid on the work in Federal Business Opportunities. And in January, the agency will disclose further details about the scope of the work involved, Knocke said.

Union members are still optimistic that they will be able to halt the competition, said Mary Lynch, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2076. "[BCIS] doesn't have much choice but to continue [planning]," Lynch said. "But that doesn't mean we're going to go along willingly."

During the August congressional recess, AFGE embarked on a campaign to win over lawmakers. Many of them were supportive, Lynch said. Since Sept. 1, at least three different groups, including 34 senators led by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., sent letters to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge urging him to halt the competition of immigration services jobs.

"Weeding out potential fraud in our immigration system must remain a responsibility of government employees, especially when the perpetrator of the fraud may be a dangerous criminal or terrorist," the senators' letter stated.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a group of more than 50 national and local organizations, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), sent similar letters. AILA argued that BCIS has already tried contracting out some immigration services work with less than satisfactory results.

Starting in June, the agency began referring inquiries traditionally handled by immigration officers at local service centers, to a National Customer Service Center staffed by contract employees. "The contrast has been profound, with resulting problems ranging from the frustrating and time wasting, to truly damaging errors," the AILA's letter said. "Operators who now answer the calls know nothing about the subject of the call and rarely provide assistance."

Immigration officers and contact representatives possess extensive training and on-the-job experience difficult for contractors to match, said Bridgette Rodriguez, president of AFGE Local 1458 in Miami. It takes at least three to five years to acquire the expertise of a typical immigration information officer or contact representative, she said. Contractor workforces are often transient and are therefore unlikely to remain at immigration services jobs long enough to truly understand the ins and outs of immigration law, Rodriguez added.

Both immigration officers and contact representatives serve as customer service specialists at BCIS offices. They usually fall between pay grades GS-5 and GS-8, and are responsible for answering questions about immigration applications as well as determining eligibility for some benefits. There is virtually no distinction between the positions, according to Dan Kane, a BCIS spokesman.

These immigration services agents resolve problems with immigration applications, including those for green cards, Rodriguez said. Some of these problems are very complex, and can be better answered in person after a thorough review of relevant documents, she said. "You can't look at these documents over the phone."

Most importantly, immigration officers serve as the first line of defense against fraudulent immigration applications. For instance, they review green card forms against databases to ensure that applicants do not have a criminal record or affiliation with a terrorist organization.

"Say I lose my purse and someone picks up my green card and poses as me," Rodriguez said. "That's where information officers come in. Their eyes and ears are important."

Information officers do not have the authority to arrest suspicious applicants, but can alert law enforcement officers if the situation warrants, Rodriguez added. "Don't discount their job at all, because it's very important," she said. "It takes years to learn to detect fraud."

Lynch, of AFGE Local 2076, said she hopes supportive lawmakers will explore legislative options for protecting immigration officer jobs. Such options could include appropriations bill language declaring the immigration services jobs "inherently governmental," she said.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., tried to protect air traffic controllers from competition by adding a similar provision to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. The Senate approved his language, but House-Senate negotiators later discarded the measure.