INS Mix-Up Drops 3,500 From Travel 'Watch List'

Los Angeles Times ^ | May 23, 2002 | PATRICK J. McDONNELL

[sarcasm]

For nearly two months, the inspectors who monitor U.S. ports of entry were working with a computerized watch list that omitted about 3,500 people identified as suspected criminals, potential terrorists or otherwise ineligible to enter the U.S., authorities said Wednesday.

At least one person was allowed to enter the country at Los Angeles International Airport without vigorous inspection during the Immigration and Naturalization Service's computer system breakdown, which lasted from March 23 to May 15. Authorities said no one knows if others who might have been flagged by the computers got through during this time.

[sarcasm]

Click HERE for complete article.

[goldstategop]

The INS is a broken sieve. It needs to be dismantled not reformed.

[Movemout]

I know what to do. Lets federalize the INS like we did the screeners and...Oh wait! They are already federal workers and by definition much more competent than private sector organizations.

[Lion's Cub]

I don't believe for one moment that this was an "accident". I also have a very hard time believing that there was no quality control check done to see that the information had transferred as expected.

So who did the work, and who was responsible for seeing that it was done correctly? And can we be sure this was a "glitch", or did someone delete these names from the system after the transfer and on demand as needed?

[Irish Eyes]

The INS is getting more ludicrous by the day, we need a new agency that goes by the name of the OUTS.

[goldstategop]

ROFL. The INS has an appropriate acronym for an agency of its fecklessness and incompetence.

[angkor]

The INS is getting more ludicrous by the day,

No, it's just that the previous eight years of rapid decline (1993 through 2000) are finally being noticed and reported.

What we're seeing now has been true for many years.

And as we've seen with the recent attempts to smuggle 245(i) through Congress, the state of the INS is the direct result of Congressional and Executive Branch meddling. GWB has done nothing to fix INS, and everything to burden it with an additional million-plus cases.

[snippy_about_it]

.