Panel Urges INS Breakup and Dispersal of Its Tasks

A bipartisan federal advisory panel has decided to recommend dismantling the Immigration and Naturalization Service and parceling out its myriad tasks to other federal agencies, including the State Department, Department of Labor and the INS’ parent body, the Justice Department.

The Commission on Immigration Reform has concluded in a draft report that the oft-criticized INS--with bifurcated responsibility for both enforcing immigration laws and facilitating the entry of millions of would-be immigrants and visitors each year--simply has too large and too schizophrenic an assignment.

“It is an overload of mission,” said Shirley M. Hufstedler, the commission chairwoman and a former U.S. appeals court judge for the 9th Circuit, which includes California.

The INS “is supposed to be a good family father to immigrants, and at the same time it’s supposed to be a prosecutor,” added Hufstedler, who also served as the nation’s first secretary of Education during the Carter administration.

Critics on both ends of the political spectrum have long sought to break up the cumbersome INS bureaucracy into separate agencies, focusing on its distinct enforcement and service functions. But such proposals have never moved forward, suffering from a paucity of institutional support and fierce opposition from INS employees and others.

In fact, such a massive shift of federal resources and responsibilities is complex, costly and controversial--and would require congressional approval.

The new recommendation, with its bipartisan finding, could build a certain legislative momentum for abolishing the agency, observers said, though its chances for success are unclear. The proposal does have the clear potential of becoming yet another source of immigration-related tension between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans.

The White House and GOP leaders have battled over a number of heated immigration issues in recent months, including the effectiveness of current control efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border and an ongoing cleanup of a scandal-scarred naturalization process.

The Clinton administration had no official reaction to the commission plan, noting that the recommendation is still in draft form. But the idea was certainly not embraced.

“The agency has found that immigration enforcement and service are complementary, not competitive, functions,” the INS said in a statement defending the status quo.

California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson endorsed at least exploring the idea.

“The INS has failed miserably in a number of its core areas of responsibility,” said Ron Low, a spokesman for Wilson, whose state is home to more than one-third of the nation’s immigrants.

The recommendation, to be formally presented to Congress next month, comes as the INS’ budget has ballooned to a record $3.1 billion--more than doubling in just four years--and its handling of naturalization procedures and other matters continues to generate fierce criticism in Congress and in communities from Los Angeles to New York.

“The INS just ain’t working,” said Harold W. Ezell, former INS western states chief and longtime Republican who sits on the immigration commission.

Congress created the commission in 1990 as a bipartisan study panel. Its next report will be its last; the commission ceases to exist at the end of this year.

In its final report, the commission would recommend reorganizing immigration responsibilities among different agencies.

A Department of Justice Bureau of Immigration Enforcement would take over responsibility for controlling the border, detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, and other tasks. The State Department, which issues visas overseas, would be assigned service functions within the United States, including naturalization.