U.S. Department of Justice
Immigration and Naturalization Service
BACKGROUNDER
3/26/99 rev.
Interior Enforcement Strategy
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is committed to preserving the integrity of the legal immigration system and reducing the undocumented immigrant population in the United States. Building on the success of the INS border enforcement strategy, the agency is now focusing its capabilities on the nation’s interior, in areas that had previously not been affected by illegal immigration. To this end, INS developed a comprehensive interior enforcement strategy to systematically combat illegal immigration inside the United States by attacking its causes, not merely its symptoms.
Strategy Goals
The interior enforcement strategy, which complements INS’ border management efforts, targets the agency’s limited enforcement resources on removing criminal and other illegal aliens, disrupting smuggling rings, responding to community reports and complaints about illegal immigration, stopping immigration benefit and document fraud, and enforcing immigration law among employers.
These interlocking priorities are designed to strategically and systematically reduce the size and annual growth of the illegal resident population in the United States. As INS implements the strategy, formulated through extensive consultations with INS field staff and other federal law enforcement agencies, the resident undocumented population in the United States is expected to decline. By removing criminal aliens and combating alien trafficking and other organized and abusive practices, we will enhance public safety as well as protect the rights of immigrants who are here legally. To meet these goals INS will:
Illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes pose a significant risk to U.S. communities. Some of these criminal aliens pass through the criminal justice system, at the local, state or federal level, before their immigration status is ascertained or before INS can intervene. INS is adopting measures to further enhance its ability to identify and remove criminal aliens in the federal and state prison systems, as well as those currently on probation or parole. For maximum impact, INS is also developing regional removal plans to concentrate resources in high-volume areas.
In addition, the agency will strengthen and expand operations at its Vermont-based Law Enforcement Support Center, which provides other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies with 24-hour-a-day access to information INS collects on criminal aliens. To prevent re-entry by deported aliens, INS will work with key source-country governments to develop improved methods for monitoring and controlling their travel, including new pre-flight inspections stations.
• Deter, dismantle and diminish smuggling and trafficking of aliens
Alien smuggling operations, an $8-billion-a-year industry, are becoming the major pipeline through which illegal immigrants enter the United States. Shifting from its
focus on the consequences of criminal activity involving illegal aliens, INS will now aim to dismantle the infrastructure criminal organizations use to promote and profit from illegal immigration. These efforts will extend from source countries to U.S. work sites, focusing on smugglers, counterfeit document producers, transporters and unscrupulous employers who engage in and benefit from illegal immigration.
• Minimize immigration benefit fraud and other document abuse
Maintaining the integrity of the legal immigration system requires aggressive investigation and prosecution of benefit fraud and document abuse. The new strategy gives higher priority to complex schemes identified by INS Service Centers, the single greatest resource for detecting fraudulent applications, while promoting greater nationwide coordination of investigations to ensure maximum impact. The focus will be on applications that have the greatest potential for fraud, such as Green Card replacement and work authorization. For aliens who abuse their visa conditions, INS will impose penalties, such as visa cancellation and removal.
• Respond to community reports and complaints about illegal immigration and build partnerships to solve local problems
INS will work with local communities and enforcement agencies to identify and define problems related to illegal immigration, and to develop operational plans which address those problems. By expanding operations at its Law Enforcement Support Center, which currently handles nearly 8,000 queries a month, INS can be more responsive to law enforcement officials. Cooperation with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies will be further enhanced with the deployment of Quick Response Teams in FY 1999, which will minimize the local impact of criminal alien and smuggling activities. QRTs will be deployed to states that are experiencing illegal immigration problems in areas that had not previously been affected. QRT agents will work closely with state and local law enforcement to determine the status of apprehended individuals and remove those determined to be removable.
• Block and remove employers’ access to undocumented workers
Recent INS investigations have established a clear nexus between alien smuggling and the employment of unauthorized workers. By addressing these two priority areas through strengthened prosecutions, with emphasis on the crucial role played by employers, INS will further the Administration’s continuing commitment to preserving American jobs for authorized workers.
Through its worksite enforcement operations, INS will seek to build relationships with employers, openly conduct audits and surveys, and work with employers after unauthorized workers are removed to ensure continued compliance with immigration laws. Criminal investigations will focus on employers who engage in the most egregious violations of immigration laws and human rights.
Interior Enforcement Case Highlights
Operation Seek and Keep – This year-long, multi-agency investigation, which was announced in November 1998 but is still ongoing, resulted in the dismantling of the largest, most complex alien smuggling operation ever encountered by federal authorities. It smuggled more than 10,000 people into the United States, many at the request of employers seeking cheap labor. After enjoying three years of enormous profits derived from human misery and desperation—the ring grossed an estimate of more than $220 million—the criminal alien smugglers have been indicted and are now out of business, the undocumented workers encountered are in proceedings to be removed from the United States, and the employers will be punished for their egregious offense of immigration law.
Operation Over the Rainbow II – INS announced the results of this year-long, multi-agency investigation in December 1998. This alien smuggling operation crippled a criminal syndicate responsible for smuggling as many as 150 Chinese nationals per month into the United States across the northern U.S. border. INS estimates that these criminals, who charged a fee of $47,000 per person, earned as much as $169 million over two years. This investigation revealed that the aliens were smuggled into Canada using fraudulent documents. The aliens were then transported to New York City via the St. Regis Mohawk Territory at Akwesasne, an Indian reservation that straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. The criminal alien smugglers were indicted and charged with alien smuggling.
Operation Dixie Junction – The nexus between smuggling and worksite violations was clearly established in this case, and a major conspiracy involving a smuggling pipeline to employers was shut down. Illegal aliens were removed from the worksites and criminal charges were successfully brought against the smugglers and the employers, Atlantic Finishing, a Georgia-based apparel manufacturer. This case concluded in the summer of 1998. The president and owner of the company was sentenced to a 10-month jail term and fined $10,000. The company was fined a total of $84,000.
Operation Fineprint – In November 1998, more than two million fake identification documents were seized in Los Angeles in the largest document seizure in INS history. The seized documents, with an estimated street value in Los Angeles of $800 million, were headed for distribution points around the country. These documents could have been used by tens of thousands of undocumented migrants to work unlawfully in the United States. In addition, these documents could also have been used to illegally obtain health benefits and other social support benefits.
- INS -
Last Modified 3/29/99