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REPORT CRITICIZES INS EFFORTS TO CURTAIL ALIEN SMUGGLING
A report from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released this week takes the INS to task for its efforts in combating alien smuggling.  According to the report, while smuggling has significantly increased over the past decade, INS efforts to curb smuggling are disorganized, seldom tracked, and do not meet the required level of accountability. 
The report did acknowledge that the INS had made some progress in the area.  For example, prosecutions for alien smuggling have increased and the number of convictions has risen.  However, the overall tone of the report was negative.  The INS was roundly criticized for the lack of coordination in its anti-smuggling efforts.  According to the report “In several border areas, multiple anti-smuggling enforcement units exist that overlap in their jurisdictions, operate autonomously, and report to different INS officials.  INS field officials make determinations about which cases to investigate with no clear criteria on how the determination should be made, resulting in inconsistent decision making across locations.” 
One of the recommendations made in the report is the development of an automated system to track cases so that agents will know if a person has already been investigated.  The report also suggests that the INS should develop a way to track the increasing sophistication of smugglers, the paths taken by smugglers, and changing fees for smuggling.  
A spokesperson for the INS says the agency agrees with the recommendations made in the report, and is working to implement them.  The GAO report does note that the INS is working on the situation, and says the agency should have made all of the changes suggested by 2003. 
The GAO report is available online at http://www.gao.gov/daybook/000501.htm