INSIDE THE TEXAS SERVICE CENTER Part1-4

Please remember that this was posted February 2002

It is old, BUT still Good read. Here are a few excerpts...

Just imagine a large warehouse with aluminum metal shelving about six feet high and stretching over the length and width of a football field. Then imagine boxes with cases and mail being handled with forklifts and you pretty much have the picture.
Before Monday, I was truly baffled at how TSC could lose or misplace a file. Today I am not amazed at the fact that files are lost or misplaced; frankly, I am amazed that MORE files are not lost or misplaced

My mind is still blown away by the fact that these thousands of files are ping pong balls struck back and forth over a distance of 25 miles. By the way, that also explains why it is that if we ever send additional information on a particular file at a time when INS has not requested it, it has little chance of actually being matched up with the file.

What I saw was a worker's beehive of activity where almost all the labor is done by the old fashioned method: the human hand.

The truth is that most of the personnel at the St. Augustine facility is not INS personnel. They wear blue polo shirts with the notation "SCOT" inscribed on the left hand side of their chests. SCOT stands for "Service Center Operations Team." However, these folks work for a contractor that was awarded a contract with INS for mail and data processing. This company was awarded the contract last year. According to the INS personnel, things have been running more smoothly with this contractor because the contract that they have in place is incentive based. Apparently, the old contractor was not actually paid based on the amount of work actually done but rather the amount of time elapsed, whereas the new contractor only gets paid on results. If they exceed expectations, they are rewarded with a premium. If their work falls below expectations, they make less money. As a result, the new contractor is much more vigilant and more willing to terminate employees who do not perform up to standard.

As of February 2002:
381 - total number of INS employees at the TSC;
485 - total number of INS employees that will be employed at TSC once the new hires pass the background checks;
1.5 million cards - number of green cards processed by the TSC (Note: TSC does the prep work for ALL permanent residence cards issued in the United States. Once TSC processes the information, the "green cards" are manufactured at a facility in Kentucky);
900,000 - total number of EADs processed at TSC last year;
374,000 - total number of active cases currently pending at TSC;
67,000 - total number of employment-based adjustment of status processed at TSC each month;
103,0000 - total number of pieces of mail processed every week at TSC;
7,000,000 - total number of petitions processed by INS last year;
9,400,000 - total number of petitions expected to be filed with INS this year

The TSC works in two shifts that go through to 11:00 PM. (starting at 6:00 am.)

The simple truth is that while the INS has the fastest growing budget of any federal agency, most of that money is dedicated to border enforcement and other programs, not family services, and much less business services. That is simply not INS' fault. Congress is to blame. They are the ones who decide on the allocation of the INS budget. In the aftermath of September 11th, I can only think that even a greater percentage of the budget will be dedicated to what is generally termed as enforcement instead of family and business services.

We were also informed that the budget includes additional hundreds of millions of dollars to be dedicated to "our" side of immigration, the service sector. By the end of fiscal year 2003 the INS expects that it will be able to process every type of petition within six months. INS is also working very hard on implementing an online system to enable the public to check the status of their petitions via e-mail by the end of this year. Lastly, INS is looking towards electronic filing of most petitions by the end of 2003.

Please remember that this was posted February 2002
 
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