Immigration Agency

Federal immigration authorities Tuesday announced the arrests of eight employees of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation's largest public utility, for allegedly lacking authorization to work in the United States. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made five arrests Tuesday at DWP headquarters. The arrests capped a yearlong joint review of the utility's hiring records that previously had resulted in the arrest of three other alleged unauthorized workers.

Federal officials announced criminal smuggling charges Wednesday against three alleged operators of a small Watts house where authorities discovered 110 people from Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala last week. Marvin Raul Soto-Chavez, Fernando Morocho and Silvia Espinoza-Fajardo were charged in federal court with smuggling illegal immigrants and holding them in the Hickory Street bungalow until family members paid fees ranging from $3,000 to $10,000.

Four years ago, as a presidential candidate hoping to draw Latino votes, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush vowed to slash the backlog of applications for legal immigration. No one would have to wait longer than six months, he promised. Despite that resolve, the opposite has happened -- more people than ever are facing longer-than-ever delays. Green cards that would have taken 14 months to process in 2001 are now averaging 33 months.

Immigration officials launched an Internet-based appointment system Wednesday that they hope will virtually eliminate the long lines and hours of waiting typical at most Southern California immigration offices. The new service, called InfoPass, is available for scheduling appointments in the downtown Los Angeles, Santa Ana and San Bernardino offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It is not available for offices in Ventura, East Los Angeles or El Monte.

Feared by immigrants, despised by nativists, scorned by employers and rendered uselessly bureaucratic by public officials, the old Immigration and Naturalization Service may be coming to an end. And not a day too soon. The national chorus calling for change in the long-troubled agency includes President Bush. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill (S-2444) that seeks to terminate the INS and replace it with a new Immigration Affairs Agency within the Justice Department.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is investigating allegations that documents mailed to the agency's massive processing center in Orange County may have been improperly shredded by a database contractor working for the INS.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service promised Wednesday to put a stop to what officials acknowledged is the far too frequent mistreatment of legitimate travelers from Asia who attempt to enter the United States through Portland International Airport in Oregon. INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ordered a thorough investigation of practices at the airport one day after Oregon's senators, Republican Gordon H.

An immigration service crackdown focusing on airports and immigrant drop houses in Phoenix and Las Vegas has led to the arrest of 15 suspected smugglers and the capture of more than 1,450 illegal immigrants, officials said Friday.

Arizona ranchers under fire from Mexico for detaining illegal immigrants crossing their land "have legitimate concerns about the trespassers on their property," Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said Thursday. Meissner said there is no evidence to support reports by Mexican media that ranchers have shot at migrants in recent weeks. But she condemned what she called "vigilantes" and said that federal and local authorities are investigating the reports.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced Friday that it is beefing up its staffing in East Los Angeles to better handle the increased demand for renewals of so-called green cards. INS officials announced that they would add seven employees to the office at 1241 S. Soto St. to help with the flood of applications for renewing immigrant registration cards. The documents expire this summer for an estimated 200,000 immigrants throughout Southern California.