The INS Needs Far More Fixing
The homeland security bill is just a start. America's immigration policies and procedures are too broken for just one new law
One critic of the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service calls its policy "catch and release," a nod to fishermen's practice of using barbless hooks so they can more easily release their prey. It's an apt description for how the INS sets illegal aliens free on bail after they've been charged with a crime, and it has enormous implications for the war on terrorism.
Consider the case of John Lee Malvo, the 17-year-old arrested in October and charged as one of the two Beltway snipers who murdered 10 people in metropolitan Washington, D.C., over a several-week period in the fall. After the INS was tipped off to the presence of Malvo and his mother, Uma James, in Bellingham, Wash., last December, the agency detained the pair pending a deportation hearing. Then, despite admissions from James that the two Jamaicans had landed illegally in Miami in June as stowaways on a ship from the Caribbean, the INS released them and scheduled their deportation hearing date for the following November.
STANDARD PRACTICE. That 11-month delay covers the period in which Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, 41, allegedly killed 14 people in Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. The details of how and why local INS officials approved the releases are under investigation by the INS, according to the agency. But springing someone like Malvo is almost standard procedure for the 36,000-employee INS, experts say. And despite an unfortunate track record of absconding illegals and a growing list of terrorists who were allowed easy entry into the U.S., the INS has resisted change.
Plenty of blame can go around, of course. Congress has never given the INS clear direction on these types of issues. And the differences between America's stated policy on immigration and the INS game of catch-and-release is hardly new.
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INS funding won't be voted on until next year
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The Senate finally took one step toward major reform on Nov. 19, when it passed the long-stalled Homeland Security Act and sent the bill back to the House for final passage. The bill splits the administrative function of approving immigration status and citizenship from the law-enforcement role of securing borders, arresting illegals, and deporting or prosecuting them. But reforms needed in this area are massive, and time is of the essence considering the ongoing threats from the enemy.
The INS needs more money for additional detention facilities, investigators, and border guards, as well as tighter procedures. Unfortunately, Congress won't be voting on actually funding the changes until after it returns to Washington in late January. And that's far too long a delay to fix such a critical function.
TYPICAL TREATMENT. Malvo's alleged crimes are shocking, but his treatment by the INS was hardly out of the ordinary. Hesham Mohamed Ali Hedayet, an Egyptian, killed two people in a July, 2002, shooting spree at the El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles International Airport. Like Malvo, he was also awaiting a deportation hearing. Hedayet had been given a work visa pending a hearing on a request for political asylum, despite admitting that the Egyptian government had classified him as a terrorist.
Similarly, Pakistani Mir Aimal Kasi entered the U.S. with phony documents in 1991, overstayed his visa, and then applied for political asylum. Instead of deporting or detaining him, the INS gave him a work visa, pending a hearing. In 1993, Kasi murdered two CIA employees and shot three others outside the headquarters building in Virginia and fled to Pakistan the following day. Kasi was executed by lethal injection by Virginia in November for the crime.
The convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, entered the U.S. illegally, applied for asylum, and was released pending the outcome. Including the September 11 highjackers, of 48 recent foreign-born militant Islamic terrorists discovered to be in the U.S., 12 were illegal aliens, 5 had violated immigration laws previously, and 3 had applications for asylum pending. These figures come from the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
HOW MANY FINGERS? Undoubtedly, the INS has had its successes. The Border Patrol division nabbed one potential "millennium" bomber, Ahmed Ressam, as he entered the U.S. from Canada. But overall the INS has been slow to modernize. It still isn't tracking foreign students in the U.S., despite being ordered by Congress to do so in 1996, and it isn't likely to meet its new January, 2003, deadline, either, the INS admits.
The FBI and INS still can't share fingerprint information because their computer databases are incompatible, and they don't use the same methodology for taking fingerprints. The FBI "rolls" 10 fingers on a pad, and the INS blots just two index fingers. The target date for matching the two systems: fiscal 2008.
The INS is hamstrung by not having sufficient detention facilities, forcing it to cut loose suspects pending a hearing. With a weak central administration, district INS offices also exercise too much autonomy in enforcement, leading to inconsistencies. Terrorist watch lists compiled by various federal agencies aren't being shared properly, and the State Dept. has sometimes given visas to terrorists on its own watch lists. The INS still has no entry-exit system for tracking when visitors to the U.S. leave the country or when they overstay their visas.
The problems are so profound, in fact, that no one piece of legislation is likely to provide a solution to the problem of America's porous borders. Congress hasn't finished its job of reforming immigration policies. That will come when the legislature starts funding the reforms next year. A stronger enforcement branch, not a game of catch and release, should be the first line of defense against terrorism.
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Magnusson covers homeland security issues from Washington
