Posted on 03/16/2002 3:15:49 PM PST by vannrox
March 16, 2002
ASHINGTON, March 15 — Reeling from the embarrassment of mailing visa extensions this week to two dead Sept. 11 hijackers, the Immigration and Naturalization Service announced a major management shakeup today.
Michael Pearson, the head of all field operations and widely recognized as the agency's third-ranking official, was relieved of his job and will be reassigned, a Justice Department official said. The agency's director of international affairs, Jeffrey L. Weiss, will also be reassigned.
In all, four senior officials responsible for immigration services, policies and enforcement were replaced, officials said.
"The breakdown in communication, highlighted by this week's events, at the I.N.S. is unacceptable and will not be allowed," James W. Ziglar, the commissioner of immigration and naturalization, said in a statement. "These changes begin the process of accountability as we move forward with restructuring the I.N.S."
The agency's notice approving the student visas for Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, received this week by a Florida flight school six months after the attacks, ignited an uproar from the White House to Capitol Hill and renewed calls to overhaul the agency or abolish it.
Justice Department officials said that the personnel changes made today were part of Mr. Ziglar's larger plan to separate the agency's service and enforcement functions, which often conflict with each other.
"These changes were part of a broader restructuring plan that were in the works," a Justice Department official said. "This week's debacle was the impetus to move up our timetable to remedy the immediate needs." The service is an agency of the Justice Department.
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who vowed on Wednesday to hold individuals accountable for the visa blunder, also sent a letter to Congress today asking lawmakers to give the agency authority to fire people for misconduct or incompetence.
The service had such authority from 1998 to 2001, but Congress did not renew it in this year's budget.
In a letter to Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Virginia Republican who heads the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing immigration matters, Mr. Ashcroft said that "it is essential that I have the authority to quickly discipline or terminate individuals for acts of negligence, mismanagement or disregard for Department of Justice policies."
A committee spokesman said the committee was sympathetic to Mr. Ashcroft's request but would review any proposal "to make sure they can't fire anyone willy-nilly."
The immigration agency, one of the fastest-growing federal agencies with 35,000 employees and a $5.6 billion budget this year, has long suffered from antiquated computers and management turmoil. Immigrants and employers have complained of huge paperwork backlogs and surly service, problems that Mr. Ziglar has promised to fix.
But the visa extensions this week represented the last straw for many While House and Justice Department officials.
Mr. Atta and Mr. Shehhi trained at Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Fla., and are believed to have flown the two planes that destroyed the World Trade Center.
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.
On Capitol Hill today, lawmakers praised the shakeup, but insisted that the agency responsible for both patrolling thousands of miles of borders and monitoring millions of foreigners needed a total revamping.
"I loudly applaud Commissioner Ziglar on the strong first step he took today," said Representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican whose district borders the Venice flight school. "But the job cannot stop here. There needs to be a complete, top-to- bottom scrubbing of an agency completely sullied."
The dismissals represent Mr. Ziglar's biggest management reshuffling since he left his job as sergeant- at-arms of the Senate seven months ago to assume the helm of the immigration service.
The most significant change involves Johnny Williams, the agency's Western regional director, replacing Mr. Pearson, a former Army officer who joined the immigration service in 1997. Overseeing more than 30,000 employees, Mr. Pearson was ultimately responsible for all activities in the field, including the mailings that certified the hijackers' visa status.
Mr. Pearson did not respond to messages left with his office or the agency's command center tonight.
Renee Harris, the border patrol's second-ranking official and highest- ranking woman, will succeed Mr. Weiss as acting director of international affairs, which oversees all refugee and asylum programs, as well as the agency's overseas offices.
Two other changes were intended to bolster the agency's services and enforcement duties, officials said. Janis Sposato, a career Justice Department official, was named a top official for immigration services.
Michael Cronin, a senior official overseeing the agency's programs, was named assistant commissioner for inspections.
Former immigration officials said that moving Mr. Cronin to oversee inspections would also let Stuart Anderson, the agency's top official for plans and policy, assert more influence over immigration programs.
Along with Mr. Ziglar, Mr. Anderson, an immigration specialist and former top Senate Republican aide, is one of the few political appointees at the agency.
My question also.
Amazing how great minds think alike.
That would probably do more than the 2-4-6 years reshuffling of the politicians. Put them on 10 years cumulative max, too, same as any other employee.
I think I recall from another article somewhere that at least one of them was hired by Clinton Administration.
Someone should tell Mr. Ashcroft that there are many in DOJ/FBI that need firing. He wont do it, not a soul will be fired.
Except for the military,I believe what would really work is the same "at will" job security we enjoy in Florida.(I cant speak for other States)You can be "terminated" for no particular reason and you can resign for the same.Is that how your job works?
I dont believe anyone should get a free ride. If privately employed people dont perform the job they were hired to accomplish, then they should be fired.
If federal,state,or local government employed people dont perform the job they were hired to accomplish, then they should be fired.
If government employed people are not allowed to do the job they were hired to accomplish,the political appointees and/or politicians who obstruct them should be fired.Seems to always point back to politicians as the problem.We get what we vote for.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?? DOES IT MEAN THAT WE NOW HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS INCOMPETENCE IN ANOTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCY???? Give me a break!!
John Ashcroft must get congressional approval to fire anyone. That was from the Washington Times last night. He is scheduled to go before Congress next week to have that insanity overturned.
In a letter to Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Virginia Republican who heads the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing immigration matters, Mr. Ashcroft said that "it is essential that I have the authority to quickly discipline or terminate individuals for acts of negligence, mismanagement or disregard for Department of Justice policies."
A committee spokesman said the committee was sympathetic to Mr. Ashcroft's request but would review any proposal "to make sure they can't fire anyone willy-nilly."
They should have been arrested!
And others also and all charged with misfeasance and malfeasance in office.
Do WE laugh or cry?
I am as guilty as everyone else of being so focused on my day to day personal life, that the conduct of MY government tends to get lost as something out of my controll.It is not.WE all have to take back controll of our lives.OUR country was founded on the idea that it was OUR lives, not up to powerfull "others".
In this country, unique in all the world, WE have no excuse for the incompetancy of our government.WE are the government.WE can fool ourselves into believing that some vast uncaring "they" are in controll, but it is our own complacency that has allowed the current situation to develope.It is not some "other" omnipotent party or lobby in controll, it is our own individual neglect.
WE, the people, could even outlaw lawyers, should WE care too.WE, the people could kick the UN out tomorrow if WE wanted.WE are just too fragmented and satiated to pay attention to another responcibility.
I am just as guilty as everyone else.But if WE dont wake up now,and start taking on the duties that keeps OUR freedoms, will WE get the chance later?
When our government makes a mistake, reassigning people, and then formulating new policy or rules is just a smokescreen to take the pressure off the back of bureaucrats. Each "new and improved" rule or law is intended to cover up incompetence and give Americans the appearance that something is going to be done to correct the problem, which always becomes worse.
The problems in the INS start at the top. A lack of resolve at the top to do the job, and do it well trickles down to the bottom. I think the head of the INS should be replaced (fired) and so should the other inept employees. In my employment, if you cant do the job, you are fired. No if's ands or buts about it. Is the new government standards of employment set up to reward incompetence? Certainly seems to be a lot of incompetent people who work for the government. Guess that answers our question.
It seems that once a person is hired into this very special 'club' (at taxpayers' expense), the only way to get fired would be to drive into a government parking lot with a Confederate Flag plate on the front of the car.
Ashcroft can fire anyone he likes, right now. The permission from congress would eliminate the right of redress from anyone that is fired. With the permission from congress, theoretically, he could clean house. However that will not be done. Ashcroft is not the man for the job.
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