FOLLOW-UP REPORT
ALLEGED DECEPTION OF CONGRESS:
THE CONGRESSIONAL TASK FORCE ON IMMIGRATION REFORM'S
FACT-FINDING VISIT TO THE MIAMI DISTRICT OF INS IN JUNE 1995
September, 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS
II. KROME SERVICE PROCESSING CENTER
III. MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
A. Background -- Inspection Processing at the Miami International Airport
APPENDIX - INS' ANALYSIS OF NINE ALIENS
On June 14, 1996, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued the special investigative report entitled Alleged Deception of Congress: The Congressional Task Force on Immigration Reform's Fact-finding Visit to the Miami District of INS in June 1995. The report described serious problems we discovered at the Krome Service Processing Center (Krome) and the Miami International Airport (Airport). The report also assigned responsibility to various Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) personnel for having deceived a delegation from the Task Force during its visit to those two facilities. The administrative process for imposing discipline on those INS employees is still ongoing.
As part of our follow-up process, we reviewed INS actions taken during the past year to address systemic issues encountered during the Miami investigation. Our follow-up review was limited in scope. We were on-site at Krome from June 16 through June 24, 1997, and on-site at the Airport from June 19 through June 24, 1997. At Krome we reviewed detainee population levels, release of aliens into the community, and various record-keeping systems. At the Airport we reviewed detention policies and practices, the integrity and accuracy of various records systems, and the wearing of gear belts and carrying of firearms by inspectors. We also reviewed actions taken by INS to ensure cooperation with future OIG work.
In summary, we found that progress has been made in several areas, but that other areas have not measurably improved since our report was issued a year ago.
At Krome, the overcrowded conditions have eased, and juvenile male detainees are no longer housed with the general adult male population. However, we found male felons and female felons were still being housed with non-criminal male and female detainees. Criminal aliens were still being released from Krome, and sufficient evidence that criminal history checks are being performed prior to the release of aliens was missing from a number of files we reviewed. In addition, we found that discrepancies between manual and automated records at Krome continue to be a problem.
At the Airport we noted that, for the most part, criminal aliens were being held in cells while their cases were being processed. In addition, there was confusion over which aliens should be placed in the holding cells, which has apparently been caused by the definition of certain terms used in policy documents issued to establish criteria for the detention of aliens in holding cells. At the Airport, poor maintenance of Detention Logs continues to be a problem. We found that policies have been issued regarding inspectors wearing gear belts and carrying weapons, and that Miami inspectors were in compliance with these new policies.
We found that in the wake of our Miami INS report, the Commissioner acted quickly and properly to notify INS employees of the need to cooperate fully with any future investigation. A survey of our own OIG employees showed that a large majority felt that INS employee responsiveness to and cooperation with OIG investigations, inspections, and audits during the past year have been either good or excellent.
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