[FreeInWV]

The INS/Border Patrol should also be severely reformed or privatized. They created this problem through incompetent enforcement both at the border and inland as well. Their naturalization process is horribly incompetent too. There is no need to continually employ people who do do this poorly. They are the problem. Perhaps future employees should be motivated by performance based compensation.

Perhaps we should kill 2 birds with 1 stone and retask the BATF to do their work.

[DumpsterDiver]

The INS/Border Patrol should also be severely reformed or privatized. They created this problem through incompetent enforcement both at the border and inland as well. Their naturalization process is horribly incompetent too. There is no need to continually employ people who do do this poorly.

I don't know what it would take to fix this mess, but the following excerpts demonstrate the truth of your statements.

I.N.S. Shredder Ended Work Backlog, U.S. Says
Jan 31, 2003

Tens of thousands of pieces of mail come into the huge Immigration and Naturalization Service data processing center in Laguna Niguel, Calif. One manager there had a system to get rid of the vexing backlog, federal officials say.

This week the manager was charged with illegally shredding as many as 90,000 documents (American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits).

The manager, Dawn Randall, 24, was indicted late Wednesday by a federal grand jury, along with a supervisor working under her, Leonel Salazar, 34.

SNIP

The Laguna Niguel center handles paperwork for residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam and is one of four immigration service centers around the country operated by private contractors under I.N.S. supervision.

The four document processing centers are operated under a $325 million contract with JHM Research and Development of Maryland, which in turn subcontracts the operations to two other companies.

SNIP

Contracting Firms Pay Over $1 Million to Settle I.N.S. Shredding Allegations [Salazar and Randall got probation]
June 21, 2006

Los Angeles, CA - The three outside contractors hired by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to handle mail receipt and data entry at the California Service Center (CSC) in Laguna Niguel have paid the government a total of $1,040,552 to resolve allegations that their employees or temporary workers intentionally shredded, rather than properly filed, thousands of documents submitted by immigrants during a three-month period in 2002.

JHM Research and Development, Inc.; SEI Technology, Inc.; and Datatrac Information Services, Inc. did not admit wrongdoing, but paid the $1 million settlement to avoid civil litigation over the matter.

My comments: slap on the wrist payments:

SEIT – $494,262.20

JHM - $52,027.60

Datatrac - $494,262.20

Previously, Leonel Salazar, a Datatrac supervisor in the CSC file room, and Dawn Randall, the manager of the CSC file room employed by SEIT, were convicted of unlawful destruction of government documents. Salazar was convicted after a jury trial in 2003, and his conviction was affirmed on appeal. Randall pleaded guilty in 2005. Both defendants were sentenced to probation.

NOTE: Ms. Randall and Mr. Salazar were each charged with conspiracy and five counts of willfully destroying documents filed with the I.N.S. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. Each of the other counts can bring three years in prison.

Their subordinates were not charged because they were low-level workers acting on instructions, the government said.

SNIP