Immigration And Naturalization Service

A former Ventura gang member who was ordered released from jail after prosecutors decided not to retry him a third time on murder charges remained behind bars Tuesday on suspicion of being in the country illegally. Mexico-born Ramiro Salgado, 23, will be picked up by federal Immigration and Naturalization Service agents this morning, authorities said, and transferred to a holding facility in Camarillo.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service settled a lawsuit Friday that alleged its Miami offices fostered anti-Cuban and anti-Latino sentiments and retaliated against an agent who aired bias accusations after the armed raid to seize Elian Gonzalez. The federal whistle-blower lawsuit, brought by INS agent Ricardo Ramirez against the Justice Department, had been scheduled to go to trial on Monday. Ramirez claimed he faced retaliation after going public with allegations of bias at the INS.

About 25,000 immigrants waiting for their residency applications to be processed by immigration officials can work and go to school in the United States under a preliminary settlement reached Monday in federal court in Santa Ana. The agreement is expected to end a 2-year-old class-action lawsuit filed by relatives of immigrants granted legal immigrant status under a 1986 amnesty program. The agreement would allow spouses and children of amnesty recipients to become U.S.

James Ziglar, the embattled chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Friday that he would leave his job by the end of the year, ending a short tenure at what is widely considered one of the government's worst run agencies. The INS has long been seen as inadequate in its job as enforcer of the nation's immigration laws. Ziglar, a financial services lawyer and boyhood friend of Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced Monday that it had broken up a multimillion-dollar smuggling ring that took advantage of the desperation of parents living illegally in the United States to have their children join them. Hundreds of children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador were smuggled through Mexico, into Los Angeles, and then throughout the United States, the INS said.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, whose mission of safeguarding U.S. borders became a household concern after Sept. 11, has been shaken by an unprecedented exodus of Border Patrol agents and immigration inspectors this year. Lured by a combination of better pay and more satisfying jobs, about 2,000 Border Patrol officers and immigration inspectors--the men and women whose tasks include catching terrorists and other criminals--have left the INS since Oct. 1.

A Justice Department decision to enforce--with fines or deportation possible--a long-neglected law requiring noncitizens to report address changes has enraged some immigrant advocates in Southern California, where more than 1 million residents will be affected by the new policy. Civil liberties and immigrant rights workers said otherwise-law-abiding residents could be severely punished, either mistakenly or for minor, inadvertent offenses. "It's outrageous.

A 22-year employee of the Immigration and Naturalization Service pleaded guilty Monday to charges of accepting a bribe and selling stolen immigration documents. Maria Chica, 52, of Los Angeles admitted stealing 22 permanent resident cards, which she sold for $2,000 to a person who turned out to be a government informant. She also acknowledged selling an INS work permit to the informant for $1,500. Assistant U.S. Atty.

Top House Republicans endorsed much of President Bush's government reorganization plan Thursday, but they rejected his proposal to move the troubled federal immigration service intact to a new domestic security department. Under legislation drafted by House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), the responsibilities of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now part of the Justice Department, would be divided.

"INS Covers More Ground Than Homeland Security" (Commentary, July 1) argues that placing the Immigration and Naturalization Service under a new Department of Homeland Security would "deflect the agency from its core missions." The problem, however, is that no one can really define what the INS' core mission is, which is the primary reason the agency has been a bureaucratic basket case for decades. Ironically, placing it under Homeland Security would give the INS the very thing it has lacked for a long time: a definable national-interest mission.