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INS ANNOUNCES NEW "QUALITY ASSURANCE" RULES TO IMPROVE NATURALIZATION PROCESS
During the recent Presidential election, the integrity of the naturalization process whereby permanent residents become US citizens, was called into question. The Immigration and Naturalization Service and its parent department, the Department of Justice, announced several new measures that are designed to address the criticisms.
One of the most important initiatives is a new procedure where the INS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the "FBI") will cooperate to ensure that no naturalization applicant can become a naturalized citizen until the FBI has completed checking its computer databases for records of a criminal history that would render the applicant ineligible. The new procedure will allow the INS to gain a "definitive" answer on whether the applicant's FBI check is processed before the applicant is schedule for his or her citizenship interview. The INS had been accused of naturalizing criminals before the FBI background check had been completed. Several Republican Congressmen accused the Clinton Administration of deliberately pushing through naturalization applications without the required background checks in order to increase the number of registered voters that were presumably Democrat-leaning. The Department of Justice has rejected the allegation that any high level officials were involved in any such scheme, though it has indicated that lower level officials may have committed federal offences. Representative Bill Zeliff, a Republican from New Hampshire, has been the leading voice of criticism and has accused the President and Vice President of personally working on the project to push through naturalization applications. Furthermore, Zeliff indicated that he had evidence of thousands of naturalized criminals. However, Zeliff's staff was only able to produce two examples when pressed by a reporter from the WASHINGTON POST newspaper.
A second new initiative announced by the Department of Justice is the hiring of KPMG Pear Marwick, LLP, an independent management consulting firm, to conduct a comprehensive audit (in conjunction with the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General) of naturalization cases from September 1995 through December 1996. The review will take place at the INS Regional Service Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Finally, the INS will embark on a "reengineering" of the entire naturalization program in order to improve efficiency and ensure that no applications are approved without the necessary verification of eligibility. 
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