By Jose Latour Thursday, May 23, 2002
- Jose Latour\'s Port of Entry Daily Column -
Well, the new regulations ordering the INS to implement numerous security provisions designed to provide us with protections from terrorists\' activities are in place so we can rest easy, correct?
Not necessarily. According to recent reports, INS offices nationwide are virtually in a state of paralysis as workers have yet to be provided with the equipment and training on how to use the new security database. As of nearly two weeks ago, the INS instructed its employees to begin checking the names of applicants seeking permanent residency, naturalization, and other forms of immigration benefits against the Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS). That database contains all kinds of criminal information and immigration records supplied by the INS, FBI, Customs Service, and a variety of other U.S. Federal agencies.
"Not so fast!" cried INS officials all over the country: Where do we begin? Due to a lack of computer hardware and fundamental operational know-how, many INS offices nationwide don\'t even know how to begin to comply with the security enforcement rules. Anonymous INS sources are indicating that backlogs are being created in a variety of district offices which have been joyful about their recent ability to eliminate such backlogs, and AILA members nationwide are expressing concern.
As usual, the predictable batch of INS-bashers are taking a host of cheap shots against the poor, beleaguered agency, and no one is considering the monumental task at hand: The overnight retraining and re-implementation of a massive security background-checking system throughout a nationwide network of offices previously unsuspecting and unequipped to deal with such a process.
I know, I know....you\'re all sick and tired of hearing me defend the INS. I\'m not defending them. I\'m simply saying that this is a colossal undertaking and that the agency, which had never before been given the necessary tools and information to adequately screen at this level of security, has suddenly been given this equipment. Bashing the INS for their inability to pull it together within the time frame that has passed is like handing a complex new software bundle to competent data entry clerks and getting irritated with them right away because they haven\'t figured it out instantaneously. The key here will be to balance the need for the implementation of the security screening systems with the critical avoidance of the re-creation of the unforgivable backlogs which have plagued the INS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usvisanews.com/memo1711.html
- Jose Latour\'s Port of Entry Daily Column -
Well, the new regulations ordering the INS to implement numerous security provisions designed to provide us with protections from terrorists\' activities are in place so we can rest easy, correct?
Not necessarily. According to recent reports, INS offices nationwide are virtually in a state of paralysis as workers have yet to be provided with the equipment and training on how to use the new security database. As of nearly two weeks ago, the INS instructed its employees to begin checking the names of applicants seeking permanent residency, naturalization, and other forms of immigration benefits against the Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS). That database contains all kinds of criminal information and immigration records supplied by the INS, FBI, Customs Service, and a variety of other U.S. Federal agencies.
"Not so fast!" cried INS officials all over the country: Where do we begin? Due to a lack of computer hardware and fundamental operational know-how, many INS offices nationwide don\'t even know how to begin to comply with the security enforcement rules. Anonymous INS sources are indicating that backlogs are being created in a variety of district offices which have been joyful about their recent ability to eliminate such backlogs, and AILA members nationwide are expressing concern.
As usual, the predictable batch of INS-bashers are taking a host of cheap shots against the poor, beleaguered agency, and no one is considering the monumental task at hand: The overnight retraining and re-implementation of a massive security background-checking system throughout a nationwide network of offices previously unsuspecting and unequipped to deal with such a process.
I know, I know....you\'re all sick and tired of hearing me defend the INS. I\'m not defending them. I\'m simply saying that this is a colossal undertaking and that the agency, which had never before been given the necessary tools and information to adequately screen at this level of security, has suddenly been given this equipment. Bashing the INS for their inability to pull it together within the time frame that has passed is like handing a complex new software bundle to competent data entry clerks and getting irritated with them right away because they haven\'t figured it out instantaneously. The key here will be to balance the need for the implementation of the security screening systems with the critical avoidance of the re-creation of the unforgivable backlogs which have plagued the INS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usvisanews.com/memo1711.html