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• WHAT IS ITS MISSION?
• HOW IS IT STRUCTURED?
• PRIMARY FUNCTIONS
• PROGRAMS
• BUDGET INFORMATION
• HISTORY
• CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES
• FAST FACTS
• SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
• FUTURE DIRECTIONS
• AGENCY RESOURCES
• AGENCY PUBLICATIONS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY

PARENT ORGANIZATION: Department of Justice
ESTABLISHED: March 3, 1891
EMPLOYEES: 28,000

Contact Information:
ADDRESS: 425 I St. NW Washington, DC 20536
PHONE: (202) 514-4316
TOLL FREE: (800) 755-0777
FAX: (202) 514-3296
URL: http://www.ins.usdoj.gov
COMMISSIONER: Doris Meissner

WHAT IS ITS MISSION?

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) oversees and enforces the laws that apply to the entry of non-U.S. citizens, referred to as "aliens" or foreign nationals, into the United States. The INS oversees the legal entry of non-U.S. citizens who are temporarily or permanently settling in the United States, and enforces the laws of naturalization, the process by which a foreign-born person becomes a citizen. The INS also tackles illegal entrance into the United States, preventing receipt of benefits such as social security or unemployment by those ineligible to receive them and investigating, detaining, and deporting those illegally living in the United States.

HOW IS IT STRUCTURED?

At the head of the INS is a commissioner appointed by the president who reports to the Attorney General in the Department of Justice. INS works closely with the United Nations, the Department of State, and the Department of Health and Human Services. The INS is a very large and complex organization that has four main divisions—Programs, Field Operations, Policy and Planning, and Management—that are responsible for operations and management.

The operational functions of the INS include the Programs and Field Operations divisions. The Programs division is responsible for handling all the functions involved with enforcement and examinations, including the arrest, detaining, and deportation of illegal immigrants as well as controlling illegal and legal entry. The

BUDGET: Immigration and Naturalization Service

Field Operations division is responsible for overseeing INS's many offices operating throughout the country and the world. The Field Operations division implements policies and handles tasks for its three regional offices, which in turn oversee 33 districts and 21 border areas throughout the country. Internationally, the Field Operations division oversees the Headquarters Office of International Affairs which in turn oversees 16 offices outside the country.

The managerial functions of the INS include the Policy and Planning and Management divisions. The Office of Policy and Planning coordinates all information for the INS and communicates with other cooperating government agencies and the public. The office is divided into three areas: the Policy Division; the Planning Division; and the Evaluation and Research Center. The second managerial division, called the Management division, is responsible for maintaining the overall mission of the INS throughout its many offices and providing administrative services to these offices. These duties are handled by the offices of Information Resources Management, Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Equal Employment Opportunity.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS

In its effort to control immigration, the INS actively patrols the 8,000-mile border of the United States with an armed presence using automobiles, airplanes, boats, and even horses. The INS also polices all other entry points into the country such as airports and harbors. In addition officers of the INS investigate many violations of the laws within the U.S. and aid other agencies in the prevention of drug smuggling, fraud, and other violent crimes. They investigate places of employment for the presence of illegal workers and are responsible for holding illegal immigrants until they are tried and then deporting them if they are found guilty of being in the country illegally.

The INS also is responsible for allowing and monitoring legal immigration. They screen people and documents at approximately 250 ports of entry, such as air-ports, harbors, and highways. They also screen applications for people desiring to enter the country temporarily or permanently and administer the test to foreign nationals to become permanent citizens.

PROGRAMS

Most INS programs involve either enforcement or examinations. The four main enforcement programs are Border Patrol, Investigations, Intelligence, and Detention and Deportation. The goal of the enforcement programs is to keep people from illegally entering the country and to find and deport those who are already living illegally in the country. The four main examinations programs are Adjudication and Nationality, Inspections, Service Center Operations, and Administrative Appeals. Their goal is to determine applicants' eligibility for temporary or permanent visas or for U.S. citizenship.

BUDGET INFORMATION

In 1997 the estimated amount of money appropriated by Congress from the overall budget of the United States for the operation of the INS was $1.684 billion, with an additional $430 million in fees collected, for a total budget of $2.114 billion. By far, the largest portion of this total (62 percent) went toward enforcement, $1.299 billion. This included the costs of inspecting 475 million people; deporting 1 million illegal aliens; apprehending 13,600 smugglers; and seizing 9,600 vehicles.

Other significant allotments include: $626 million (30 percent) directed toward personnel compensation; supplies and materials, $91 million (4 percent); and equipment, $89 million (4 percent). The smallest portion of the budget goes toward the naturalization process, $9 million (less than 1 percent).

HISTORY

In 1864 a federal office was established to encourage immigration into the U.S. at a time when the population

The INS screens applicants for entry into the United States and administers the test foreign nationals must pass to become U.S. citizens. Pictured are people waiting outside an INS Office. (UPI/Corbis-Bettmann)

was sparse and skilled workers were needed to fuel the second Industrial Revolution. At the time, however, each state handled immigration into its own territory as its own laws dictated, so the new federal office lacked any real legal authority over the states and was largely ineffective. Four years after this office was established, Congress abolished it. For the next several decades various laws were passed to deal with the rising number of "undesirable" aliens who were entering the country, such as criminals, the ill, or those of certain ethnic backgrounds; but immigration was still governed by individual states.

The situation grew more unwieldy as the population grew, and the individual states and members of the Congress felt pressure to control the influx. In 1882, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Treasury Secretary was put in charge of implementing new restrictions on immigration and worked closely with the states to devise an efficient way to enforce the new standards. These restrictions primarily applied to Chinese, contract laborers, prostitutes, and criminals.

However, the crush of immigrants continued until the problem grew too big for individual states. As a result Congress enacted the Immigration Act in 1891 which created the first federal agency, the Bureau of Immigration. Standards for entrance were broadened to exclude more categories of people, such as the insane, paupers, and those with diseases. Also contract labor was defined more specifically. Many businesses, such as the railroads, depended on cheap contract labor from other countries to operate profitably. Inspection stations were opened, such as Ellis Island in New York, and medical examinations of new arrivals were initiated.

In 1903 the Bureau of Immigration was reorganized and transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor. The naturalization division of the INS didn't become a part of the organization until 1906, when Congress passed the Naturalization Act. Formerly, examinations for citizenship and visa status were conducted within the Department of Justice by the courts. For a brief period following the Naturalization Act both the duties of naturalization and immigration were combined under one agency. As their parent organizations evolved, and the political climate and the types of issues around immigration changed, they were once again separated in 1913 only to then be finally consolidated into one agency in 1933. By that time the Department of Commerce and Labor had become the Department of Labor, and the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization was firmly established as a single organization. In 1940, as more and more of its work involved legal issues, it was moved to the Department of Justice where it remains today.

In the 1990s the administration of President Bill Clinton responded to the country's changing political climate by taking a variety of positions on immigration, trying to satisfy various segments of society. For example, in 1992 the Clinton administration and the INS offered an "open arms" policy to political refugees from Cuba and Haiti who were arriving daily by boat. By 1994, however, the influx had become great and many refugees were being lost at sea. The administration and the INS responded by closing that means of entrance and sending the refugees back to camps at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, Cuba. Cuba agreed to limit the number of refugees and the INS agreed to allow 20,000 refugees from the camps to immigrate per year.

CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES

The INS handles a great number of immigrants into the United States every year. For example, in 1995 484 million travelers passed through inspection stations at the country's approximately 250 ports of entry. In that same year, the INS naturalized 500,000 new citizens, allowed more than 100,000 refugees to enter, granted asylum to more than 12,000 people fleeing from persecution in their own countries, and permitted 18 million tourists, students, and business people into the United States under different types of visas. In addition to these numbers, the INS is responsible for policing nearly 8,000 miles of borders, an enormous task that generates controversy over who should be admitted under what circumstances and whether the agency is effective in applying these policies.

Case Study: Border Patrol

For many years, thousands of illegal immigrants have been known to cross the border daily in order to seek work and better financial conditions in the north. They cross at well-known entry points in urban areas, such as San Diego, where it is easier for them to escape in the urban landscape of streets and neighborhoods. Under political pressure, the INS began a series of crack-downs beginning in 1994 against illegal immigrants entering the country across the Mexican border. Local residents had long complained of property damage and danger to the residents, and that illegal immigrants were using their schools, public facilities, and welfare bene-fits but paying no taxes and that the expense was threatening to bankrupt local governments. Resentment had been growing on the part of taxpayers for many years. With the inauguration of the Clinton administration in 1992 and the subsequent appointment of Attorney General Janet Reno, new attention was brought to the issue.

In 1993 Reno toured the border areas and saw how weak enforcement was. In response to her inspection and growing protests by local citizens, the Department of Justice initiated a new program in San Diego County, California, called Operation Gatekeeper. Similar programs were later begun in other areas, such as in Arizona (where it is called Safeguard), and in Texas and New Mexico (where it is called Rio Grande). The strategy of these operations is to put a huge amount of manpower at these urban points and force the illegal immigrants to enter from the open countryside, where the Border Patrol can more easily catch them. The effectiveness of these operations is the focus of much controversy.

According to the Border Patrol, the number of arrests at these targeted, well-known entry points has fallen while the number of overall arrests has risen and therefore it considers the operations successful. For example, in one area of the San Diego County border, arrests went from 18,847 to 9,130. They also claim that, as planned, the arrests and illegal crossings have risen in the nonurban areas.

Opponents, however, cite the high total number of illegal immigrants still getting across and the deteriorating quality of life for many residents in nonurban areas. They say that thousands of people are crossing their property and moving into their towns at these new focal points at an alarming rate, so the Border Patrol operations have shifted the problem from one place to another. Arrests at one California border station, for example, jumped from 2,500 in 1994 to more than 51,000 in 1996.

Contributing to the problem is the uncertainty about the true number of immigrants who cross the border illegally each year. The Border Patrol says that the overall number of arrests along the San Diego/Imperial County border for 1996 was 85,000, representing 50 percent of the total number of illegal crossings in a year. Opponents claim that this number represents only one-tenth of the total number of illegal crossings at that location. Estimates, in their opinion, of the number of all illegal crossings along the entire border run as high as 850,000 per year.

As a result of this controversy, more agents have been put along the border. For example, since 1994, the number of border patrol agents in California alone went from 100 to 500. These agents are being given more sophisticated and more expensive equipment, such as night vision goggles and four-wheel-drive vehicles. In addition, plans are in effect to build a 10-foot-high fence along the entire border, an enormously expensive project that opponents doubt will ever be finished.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

In 1996 the INS instituted the Machine Readable Data (MRD) program, which involves the computerization of fingerprints so that they can be better tracked throughout the nation. They have also reduced the average time it takes to process fingerprints on naturalization applications. In New York City, the INS completed a successful, extensive, antismuggling investigation involving deaf Mexican aliens who were brought illegally into the country and put to work at slave wages. On an international level, the INS instituted a program called Operation Global Reach, which involved the opening of 13 new overseas offices to help prevent smuggling and illegal entry before they reach U.S. borders. In 1996 in the United States, the INS identified more than 33,000 jobs being held by illegal aliens and took action to enforce the relevant immigration laws.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The INS plans to further increase the number of Border Patrol agents along the Mexican-U.S. border and to supply them with the most up-to-date equipment. The agency has also created a group to work directly with the Mexican government to find better ways to decrease immigration and ensure the public safety. The INS also has formed a closer working partnership with the FBI in order to combat alien smuggling along the borders.

AGENCY RESOURCES

Information can be obtained from the INS by writing to the Office of Information, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, 425 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20536 or by calling (202) 514-4316. The INS Web page can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov. The INS recommends locating the INS regional office in the telephone directory for more information. The Federal Yellow Book, found in public libraries, contains a more detailed listing of all the offices under "Immigration and Naturalization Service."

AGENCY PUBLICATIONS

Publications are available on the INS's home page at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov. Many INS publications are available in their Electronic Reading Room at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/inserr/default.htm. These include INS Handbooks and Guides, Foreign Affairs Manual, INS Guides to the Public, and the Employee Sanctions Litigation Manual. Also available on the Web are various INS forms which can be downloaded from the site or received by mail by contacting Office of Information, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, 425 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20536 or by calling (202) 514-4316.