INS COMMISSIONER SUPPORTS REORGANIZATION OF THE AGENCY

Speaking before the Senate Immigration Committee, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said she now agrees that the agency she heads is in need of reorganization.  She said the dual functions of the INS, preventing illegal immigration and providing services for legal immigrants are “a strained structure designed for a different era.”

The Chairman of the Senate Immigration Committee, Spencer Abraham (R-MI), has introduced a bill that would replace the INS with an Immigration Affairs Agency that would have two branches, one to provide enforcement of immigration laws and the other to provide services.  There are two other proposals for INS reorganization, both introduced in the House.  One, introduced by Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), is similar to the Senate proposal in that an enforcement and a service bureau would be under a new agency.  The other, introduced by Harold Rogers (R-KY), would create two new agencies, one for services and one for enforcement, without any links between them. 

The current organization of the INS is blamed for many of the agency’s problems.  Its inability to process applications by legal immigrants is said to be because so much effort and resources are put into enforcement.  The inability to provide effective enforcement of immigration laws is seen as resulting from the fact that the agency is too busy providing services. 

There is some division within pro-immigrant advocacy groups on what is the best scenario.  Some fear that an outright division of the agency will cause the services agency to be underfunded.  Others argue that there is no way the agency can separate its functions successfully under the same roof and that INS fees are currently being mostly allocated to enforcement anyway.  It will take much discussion and negotiation, but at this point it seems INS reorganization will occur at some point in the near future.

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