INS under scrutiny after terror visas

WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- The decision by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to issue student visa waivers to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers drew the ire Thursday of House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr., who vowed to reform the agency. Sensenbrenner has introduced legislation to abolish the agency and replace it with two new agencies.

The Huffman Aviation International, a flight school attended by Mohamed Atta and Marwan al Shehhi, received notices on March 11 that both men had been granted visa waivers six months to the day after they died while piloting two planes into the World Trade Center.

"We're all dumbfounded by the week's revelations about the INS visa notices for Mohamed Atta and Marwan al Shehhi," Sensenbrenner said in a statement. "This fiasco is indicative of enormous management problems at the INS."

As a result, the chairman has sent a letter demanding information about the mishap to INS Commissioner James Ziglar and by introducing legislation to dismantle the agency. Although the INS had blamed the problem on a failed computer system, Sensenbrenner seemed unconvinced.

"While the INS's computer systems are woefully deficient, I believe that those systems are only part of the problem," he told Ziglar in a letter. "INS management, which has allowed the agency's technology and other problems to fester uncorrected for years, is at the heart of this and several other issues within the agency."

By March 28, Sensenbrenner wants Ziglar to supply a detailed description of the process by which the two terrorists were converted from tourist to student status by the INS six months after they committed the worst terrorist act in U.S. history. He also wants the full immigration records of all 19 hijackers to be released to the committee.

On April 9, the committee will hold a hearing on the legislation to split the INS into separate agencies.