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INS TO OPEN 13 NEW OVERSEAS OFFICES
The Immigration and Naturalization Service recently announced plans to open thirteen new offices in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America in order to fight alien smuggling.
The initiative, called Operation Global Reach, will cost an estimated $8.2 million. The INS believes this is a much more cost effective way to fight alien smuggling than dealing with enforcement only in the US. 
The INS will open two new offices in China - one in Beijing and one in Guangzhou. Others will open in Accra, Ghana; Copenhagen, Denmark; Johannesburg, South Africa; Tokyo, Japan; San Salvador, El Salvador; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Kingston, Jamaica; Lima, Peru; Panama City, Panama; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Quito, Ecuador. 
The offices will be staffed by forty-five INS officers all trained and experienced in dealing with alien smuggling rings. The INS and the news media have reported on eggregious abuses of immigrants by smugglers including forcing smuggled aliens to perform slave labor. Some smugglers are reported to charge as much as $50,000 for their services.
The INS will also be on the lookout for corruption in its own ranks. Jerry Wolf Stuchiner, the INS' chief officer in Hong Kong, was recently imprisoned for assisting an alien smuggling ring to obtain false Honduran passports for Asians seeking to immigrate illegally to the US. 
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