U.S. INS REORGANIZATION

The ISSUE: The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) both enforces immigration laws and adjudicates applications for nonimmigrants and immigrants. INS is justifiably criticized for not providing timely and consistent service for applicants.  Congress needs to share responsibility due to unfunded, intricate and other conflicting mandates. Simply put: the INS has a tremendous adjudications backlog, and fails to consistently and professionally enforce immigration laws. Nearly everyone who deals with the INS agrees it should be reformed. The question is how to do that, while allowing the agency to operate successfully.

BACKGROUND:  Appointed in 1990, the Commission on Immigration Reform recommended breaking up the INS, and dispersing its operations to the State, Justice, and Labor Departments. President Clinton rejected those recommendations.  In the 105^th Congress, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) introduced H.R. 4264, which would have turned the INS into a Bureau of Enforcement and a Bureau of Border Affairs within the Department of Justice. The measure did not win passage.  

CURRENT STATUS: There are three major INS reorganization proposals currently before Congress:

• H.R. 2528, sponsored by Representatives Rogers, Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Silverstre Reyes (D-TX), would divorce the two INS functions of enforcement and adjudications. AILA opposes this measure because it provides for neither a single person to be accountable for immigration policy, coordination between the functions, nor an adequate funding mechanism.
  
  
• H.R. 2680, introduced by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), would create a National Immigration Bureau, run by a single person reporting to the Attorney General. The bill would create separate offices handling adjudications, enforcement and detention; mandate an Office of Shared Services, handling support requirements for all offices; and would require that all offices receive appropriated funds.  H.R. 2680 also would restore Section 245(i), with the funds from the fees generated used to support the office handling adjudications.  
  
  
• S. 1563, introduced by Senators Spencer Abraham (R-MI), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), would establish an Immigration Affairs Agency within the Justice Department, run by a single person.  The bill also creates: separate offices handling services and adjudications, and enforcement; addresses the long processing delays; increases the number of border patrol agents by 1,000 in FY 2002, 2003, and 2004; and states that fees paid for providing adjudication and naturalization services may be used only to fund adjudication and naturalization services or services provided without charge to asylum applicants.

AILA's POSITION: Any INS restructuring proposal must provide for: a single voice on immigration policy and decision-making; coordination between adjudications and enforcement; and adequate funding.  S. 1563 and H.R. 2680 meets all three criteria.  H.R. 2528 meets none of them.