INS Covers More Ground Than Homeland Security

The location of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the federal government has traditionally reflected the priorities of the day. In 1913, the Bureau of Immigration was placed in the newly created Department of Labor. In 1940, when internal security concerns were paramount, the INS was transferred to the Department of Justice. So it is not surprising that President Bush would now propose moving the INS to a new Department of Homeland Security.

The terrorist threat facing the U.S. is overwhelmingly of foreign origin--all the Sept. 11 hijackers were noncitizens. And it is widely recognized that the INS needs a thorough overhaul. Thus, transfer of the INS to a new department seems both prudent and necessary.

Nonetheless, the temptation should be resisted. This quick-fix solution would undermine reform of the INS, deflect the agency from its core missions and hinder the formulation of coherent immigration policy.

The vast majority of immigrants entering the U.S. are from Latin America and Asia. More than 750,000 green cards are issued each year; most go to immigrants joining family members or taking jobs for which there are no available U.S. workers. An additional 60,000 or so people enter as refugees or are granted political asylum (although the number of refugees admitted post-Sept. 11 is lower).

The INS also adjudicates several hundred thousand applications for naturalizations each year. Furthermore, the agency's Border Patrol makes about 1 million arrests annually at the southwest border; the vast majority of those picked up there are Mexicans.

Foreign nationals who participate in terrorist activities or organizations are not entitled to residency cards, enter as visitors or naturalize. Thus, ensuring there are no terrorists among those granted admission or citizenship is a crucial function of the INS. But it is a small part of its overall work.

Of the more than 1 million people stopped at or near the border or deported from the U.S. each year, only a handful are disqualified on terrorist grounds. To place the INS in a Department of Homeland Security, then, is dramatically out of proportion to its tasks.

Based on similar reasoning, why shouldn't the department absorb the Bureau of Prisons, which imprisons terrorists. Indeed, it is curious that the Bush proposal leaves the FBI--also part of the Department of Justice--out of a new department even though the bureau's work is much more closely related to the fight against terrorism.