Publications
Proposed INS Restructuring After September
Last month, the U. S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (“INS”) announced a major restructuring that will affect the processing of all visa applications, including employment based immigrant and non-immigrant applications. The restructuring fulfills a campaign promise by President Bush to attempt to improve the processing times for employment based non-immigrant petitions and permanent resident petitions. In addition to improving the INS’ services, the restructuring plan seeks to address certain deficiencies in its law enforcement role, particularly with respect to tracking foreigners who enter the U.S. legally, but then overstay their visas. In announcing the restructuring plan, Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the terrorist attacks on September 11th added a new urgency to restructuring the INS. All 19 hijackers involved in the September 11th terrorist attacks entered the U.S. legally on student, business and tourist visas, with three having overstayed their periods of authorized stay by the time of the attacks.
The restructuring plan creates a clear division between the INS’ two missions – service and enforcement – while retaining one agency head to promote agency coordination. The proposed plan eliminates the positions of Regional and District Directors. Further, the plan replaces the current 33 INS districts across the country with six service areas and nine enforcement areas. Over the past few years, long processing times and backlogs in the system have prompted members of Congress to introduce legislation to split the INS. Under the restructuring plan, however, the INS remains one single, unified agency but with two separate chains of command. The INS’ services and enforcement duties will be separated into two bureaus: The Bureau of Immigration Services and the Bureau of Immigration Enforcement, respectively.
The Bureau of Immigration Services will be responsible for all benefits services including applications for employment authorization, all employment-based immigration applications and family-based immigration applications. The Bureau of Immigration Enforcement will be charged with the task of forming an integrated law enforcement structure to thwart illegal immigration activities at the border and in the interior U.S. The restructuring plan maintains the position of one INS Commissioner to oversee the entire agency.
The field service structure will have six services areas that will be elatively similar to one another in terms of physical size and client population. Service Area Directors will head the service areas and the focus will be on immigration service delivery. The field enforcement structure will consist of nine investigation offices headed by Special Agents In Charge and nine inspection port areas headed by Area Port Directors. The current INS regional, district and local field offices will be replaced with area and local offices focused on either immigration services or law enforcement. Other major aspects of the restructuring plan include:
- Establishing the position of Chief Information Officer (“CIO”) to assist the Services Bureau with access to relevant enforcement data when adjudicating petitions. The CIO will be charged with developing the necessary information links with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
- Establishing a Customer Relations Office in the Bureau of Immigration Services. This office will include 25 trained caseworkers to allow petitioners including employers, immigrants, U.S. citizens and congressional offices to have direct access to problem- solving assistance.
- Creating an Ombudsman in the Bureau of Immigration Enforcement to provide the public with a means to communicate concerns and complaints.
Under the plan’s timeline, the INS expects to phase in the restructuring in multiple phases. Phase One will focus on restructuring the INS headquarters’ offices as well as creating an administrative structure to implement the plan. The next two phases will focus on developing and implementing the major organizational changes in the field. By the end of the fiscal year 2003, the fundamental reform of the INS is expected to be accomplished, with the INS split into two separate bureaus, one focused on services and one focused on enforcement. By the end of fiscal year 2004 it is expected that staff relocations and final office moves will be completed.