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INS PROPOSES REORGANIZATION AS OTHERS CALL FOR ITS DISMANTLING 
The Immigration and Naturalization Service recently proposed an ambitious reorganization plan that will establish three Executive Associate Commissioners responsible for management, programs and operations. Currently there are four commissioners. The plan has many hurdles to overcome before approval and in the mean time, the INS is dealing with the stunning recommendation of the US Commission on Immigration Reform, the federal advisory panel charged with recommending policy decisions to the President, to abolish the Immigration and Naturalization Service and transfer its responsibilities to other agencies. 
The USCIR members specifically cited "longterm structural problems" and "mission overload" as justifying the conclusion that patching up the INS' perceived problems will not work.
The specific recommendations of the panel will be published in a report later this month. But a 20 page briefing paper has been circulated in Congress outlining the proposal. Four main immigration operations would be split between the Departments of State, Justice and Labor - border and interior enforcement, adjudication of visas and immigration benefits, enforcement of immigration-related labor standards and appeals of administrative decisions. 
Within the Justice Department, a "Bureau of Immigration Enforcement" would be created to handle port inspections, investigating immigration crimes, detaining illegal aliens and overseeing deportations and maintaining the Border Patrol.
At State, a new "Undersecretariat for Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Admissions" would handle visa processing, naturalization and passports.
At the Labor Department, employer sanctions for hiring unauthorized workers would be transferred from the INS.
The USCIR briefing paper did not provide cost estimates and, not surprisingly, was quickly criticized by the INS. The INS argues that "enforcement functions and benefits functions work hand in hand" and should be kept under one roof and argued that previous funding deficiencies are to blame for most of the cited problems. But now the INS has received considerable new money and the agency argues that it is "beginning to pay off." The breakup of the INS, argues that agency, would be needlessly expensive and duplicative."
The INS has been recently receiving criticism from a variety of fronts over issues ranging from the naturalization of criminals to the failure to screen out terrorists at points of entry to the buildup of massive backlogs in adjudicating immigration and naturalization petitions. 
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