...another one.
If anyone sent in any paperwork to the INS’s California Service Center in the past 30 days, please read!
I guess that’s one way to catch up on your paperwork backlog - shred it. I found it interesting that the INS contracts out for staffing at the 4 service centers. And all this time we have been blaming the INS employees...
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INS reviewing allegations of improper shredding
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 13, 2002
LOS ANGELES – All paper shredding at the Immigration and Naturalization Service's massive Orange County processing center has been suspended as officials investigate allegations that a database contractor may have improperly shredded documents.
The Laguna Niguel service center, one of four such INS facilities nationwide, is the clearinghouse for applicants from California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. The center receives an average of 60,000 pieces of mail each week, everything from visa extensions to applications for asylum.
Nonessential paperwork is routinely sent to the shredder, but last month two agency employees relayed suspicions of improper shredding, leading to an investigation by the INS Office of Internal Audit, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
No definitive proof of illegal destruction of government property has been discovered, and officials are unaware of a motive, said INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice. It's also not known how many documents may have been affected.
"We are taking this matter very, very seriously," Kice said. "The kind of work that's being done at this service center certainly affects tens of thousands of people."
Telephone inquiry services are being expanded to handle calls from people who fear that documents may have been lost, Kice said. Some applicants may be asked to send new copies of documents. Immigration advocates and lawyers will be consulted to help reconstruct missing files.
The INS inquiry is focusing on the activities of Texas-based Datatrac Information Services, Kice said. Datatrac and a second company, SEI Technology Inc., based in Virginia, are both subcontractors to a third firm, JHM Research & Development of Maryland. The INS hired JHM last year to staff the nation's four regional immigration service centers.
John Macklin, president of JHM, declined to comment about the investigation.
The INS will accept telephone inquiries related to the investigation starting today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Laguna Niguel office, (949) 831-8427. Petitioners who have not received a receipt from the INS for applications sent to the service center within the past 30 days can call and check.
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Ray
