Well, I know it's part of the Department of State, not the the INS, but I had a pretty negative experience with the U.S. Consular Office in Sydney, Australia. My Australian girlfriend sent away for her visa, and weeks went by, with no word. I finally called them up and it turned out they had just been sitting on the application, claiming that they contacted her (they had not). I ended up screaming at the insolent little twerp woman, who got indignant when I told her that she worked for me, seeing as how I paid Federal taxes. And then she refused to give me her name so I could complain to her boss. That's outrageous.
Anyway, my girlfriend got her visa literally three hours before her flight left for the U.S. And only because both of us scrambled like hell to fix what they screwed up.
So unfortunately, this deportation story doesn't really surprise me.