FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - Beginning Saturday, the INS will vanish, becoming a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Under the direction of Tom Ridge, the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services will now police borders and handle clients.
It's a move that drives home the post-Sept. 11 mind-set: Keep terrorists out.
"Every employee needs to keep their eyes focused on the mission," said Dennis Murphy, a former employee of the U.S. Customs Service who now works as a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C.
The Department of Justice, which formerly had jurisdiction over the Immigration and Naturalization Service, "retired" the agency and its flag in a closed-door ceremony Thursday. The agency's 36,000 employees now work for the Department of Homeland Security.
Whether the changes will solve the problems that have plagued the INS remains to be seen, critics and advocates agree.
"Terrorism is basically the focus. So what is going to be the impact on the public - the public who is paying a fee to get a service?" asked Victor Johnston, an immigration consultant for a Fort Worth law firm who worked with the INS for 27 years.
The INS is one of 22 agencies being merged into the Department of Homeland Security. Others include the Coast Guard, the Customs Service and the Secret Service. None of these agencies, however, has endured as much criticism as the INS, experts say.
The INS' weaknesses were a sore point for years, but the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks helped speed up the agency's fate. Those who attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center weren't U.S. citizens and even though they had entered the United States legally, some had lost their legal status. INS critics said a tougher stance against undocumented visitors might have helped foil the attacks.
"Hopefully, with new management and split missions between enforcement and service, we can expect the INS to do a better job," said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who is a member of the select committee that will oversee the Department of Homeland Security.
"It's hard to imagine them doing a worse job, as they are rated by all objective surveys as the worst-run government agency," he said.
Immigration and civil rights advocates are concerned that the focus on national security may come at the expense of immigrants' civil rights. Many post-Sept. 11 measures, such as special registration, target innocent immigrants instead of focusing on possible terrorists, they said.
"Sept. 11 was a horrible tragedy, but we have to make sure we don't equate terrorism with immigration," said Michele Waslin, a senior immigration policy analyst for the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C.
Whether enforcement and benefits will improve is like "navel gazing," said Demetrios Papademetriou, co-director of the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
"I don't think the move of the INS to DHS was portrayed by anyone as a means of trying to solve the problems of the past," he said.
The long line of people waiting at the INS district office in Dallas is typical. Some clients wake up as early as 3 a.m. to stand in place.
Immigrants travel from surrounding cities and counties to check the status of their benefits applications. Others come to find out whether they need to report a change of address. A few want to find out how they can abide by the new special registration requirements.
Most people express a sense of exasperation.
"It has to get better. It just has to get better," said pastor Robert Humphrey, who recently traveled from Corsicana to Dallas to help some immigrants resolve green card issues that date back several years.
The new Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services will administer benefits, such as work permits, asylum or refugee processing, and citizenship applications. Banners, posters and pamphlets with the bureau name were mailed to immigration offices nationwide this week.
The change is not news to the people in line at the INS office in Dallas.
"If they offer the same services, it doesn't matter," said Graciela Reynosa, a native of Mexico City who is seeking citizenship.
On paper, the Bureau of Citizenship has the advantage of reporting directly to its own deputy secretary, experts said. A citizenship and immigration ombudsman is supposed to work with the bureau to correct serious service problems.
"That is how the diagram looks," Papademetriou said. "The reality can be very different."
But some worry that the benefits side of the agency could easily become a stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security.
In fiscal 2004, President Bush would like to continue a $500 million effort to reduce backlogs, "while at the same time ensuring that our nation's policies for issuing visas are consistent with security and foreign policy interests," according to a Homeland Security budget fact sheet.
In comparison, the administration is requesting $18.1 billion to improve border and transportation security.
The immigration enforcement operations of the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security will be divided into two areas: the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.
The former will work on interior enforcement, such as tracking people who have overstayed visas, including students. The latter is the one travelers will see at ports of entry such as airports and at the U.S. borders.
"In the past, U.S. Customs and INS worked shoulder to shoulder. … You see it at every port. It makes all the sense in the world to get these agencies together," said Jorge Eisermann, a former director of investigations for the INS district in Dallas.
Eventually, international travelers coming through airports will be met by a Homeland Security officer. If there is no issue, passengers will move on. Otherwise, a person would move into a secondary area where employees with knowledge of immigration, customs or agricultural issues step in.
Interior enforcement will fall under the other arm of the directorate.
This is the immigration function that is least transparent to the public and a place where the government must balance legal issues and civil rights with effectiveness, Papademetriou said.
But Annette Lamoreaux, East Texas regional director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said her group worries about the rights of people who have contact with immigration authorities out of the public's view - whether at an airport or a district office.
International travelers who register at an airport are on their own, she said.
"You are pretty much in their custody," Lamoreaux said.
Even those who approve of the changes are keeping a close watch on how these immigration issues will play out.
"Public safety and security are paramount," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Stein's group advocates a shift from viewing immigrants as clients on the benefits side. The group even offered the government a tip sheet titled Good-bye INS, Hello DHS: 10 Tips to the New DHS to Avoid the INS' Mistakes.
For the old INS, advice was never lacking. And change is not new to the country's immigration functions. These have churned on through time from the so-called Chinese inspectors of the 1800s to the early 1900s when protection of American wages and workers was a top aim under the Department of Commerce and Labor.
Immigration employees view the latest changes with a wary wait-and-see approach.
"We don't know what it's going to be like," said Jeff Young, an INS employee and union representative.ONLINE: Department of Homeland Security, www.dhs.gov.
For immigration information, call (800) 375-5283 or go to www.immigration.gov.
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