Information-sharing key for new INS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Immigration advocates warned Thursday that successfully integrating the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service into the mammoth new Department of Homeland Security will require an emphasis on information sharing.

The structure of the huge new agency -- with an enforcement-focused Directorate of Border and Transportation Security managed separately from a Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services -- suggests that the INS will be split into two parts, something that concerns Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

She said the move to transform the agency must come with assurances that the personnel, expertise and funding will be in place.

"Do we have the infrastructure at the points of entry to make it work?" Butterfield asked.

Calling the system "terribly broken down and snagged," she said the agency has to make certain that the backlog of immigration cases are cleared. The INS at one point had a backlog of some 800,000 change-of-address cards for immigrants that were sent to a central unit for processing.

Butterfield pointed to the importance of coordination among departments and expressed concern that security will "trump any other decisions that are made."

Butterfield spoke at a panel discussion organized by the Migration Policy Institute to examine the impact of folding the INS into the huge new agency on the more than 1 million immigrants that move to the United States each year.

Federal officials charged with creating the new structure agreed it would be an enormous challenge.

"[INS] won't look like it does today. How it relates to its sister organizations [within homeland security] will be very important," said Mike Becraft, acting deputy director of INS who works in the agency's office of restructuring.

Becraft said it was difficult to say exactly what the new INS would look like. He called the restructuring effort a "daunting task."

"It is no longer your father's Oldsmobile," he added. "It's changed and its changed dramatically."

Doris Meissner, former INS commissioner, said it was essential for the agency to have a complete and timely immigration picture of individuals in the system.

"It's important if the aim is to protect the country," Meissner said.

The new homeland security agency, expected to be up and running by March 1, is one of the Bush administration's responses to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed some 3,000 people. Congressional hearings investigating whether the United States could have prevented the tragedy revealed holes in the U.S. visa and immigration system.

Several of the hijackers were allowed into the country despite obvious red flags on their visa applications, while others never showed up at the schools they were ostensibly visiting in order to attend. The INS has been under fire for years for its failure in border control and inability to keep track of foreign students and others visiting the United States. That criticism led to the resignation of INS chief James Ziglar in August.

Twenty-two federal agencies, including the INS, will be swept under the new department's large umbrella.

The agency will have a citizen services ombudsman who will report directly to Congress. The ombudsman will be responsible for helping the public and employers who hire immigrants, and will also propose policy changes to help mitigate problems.

But no decision has yet been made on whether the department should have a separate immigration policy office or whether a "robust" deputy secretary post would be sufficient.

The discussion came as the arrests of Muslim immigrants sparked demonstrations in Los Angeles Wednesday. The arrests were the result of a new INS monitoring program to fingerprint and photograph men at least 16 years of age who are from Sudan, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Iran -- all countries considered by U.S. officials to be high risk for terrorist activity.