"The immigration service said on Tuesday that the two men were initially notified last summer of the change in their visa status to student from visitor, but that the "secondary notification" to the school did not go out until after the paperwork had been done manually by a
contractor."
I agree that accountability is needed. However, in this instance it may not be a federal bureaucrat that needs to be held accountable; rather, a private contractor appears to be where the buck stops (or didn't stop) in this instance.
I suspect those don't require "special permission" to terminate.