INS Freezes Management Jobs Pending Bias Inquiry : Discrimination: Agency takes action in response to complaints from black agents. Observers say the move shows the Justice Department’s determination to end the dispute.

Responding to complaints by African-American agents in Los Angeles and elsewhere, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has frozen management positions nationwide pending review of an in-house task force investigation of alleged discrimination against black employees.

Acting INS Commissioner Chris Sale, in an internal memorandum circulated last month, ordered an immediate freeze on promotions and transfers for INS supervisory and management positions.

“I believe that we need to face problems that may exist and be prepared to deal with them effectively,” Sale said in the memo, adding that she expected the task force “to identify problems and recommend actions aimed at beginning to resolve those problems.”

Although fiscal-driven personnel freezes are not uncommon in the federal bureaucracy, observers said this action is unusual, and possibly unprecedented, because the sweeping INS managerial restrictions are based on alleged racial inequities--not budget concerns.

“I think that this is certainly unique in this service, and unique in the government as far as I’m aware,” said Duke Austin, an INS spokesman.

The FBI, buffeted in recent years by highly publicized allegations of discrimination filed by African-American and Latino special agents, ultimately agreed under pressure to open up promotions, transfers and other opportunities. But FBI management never formally froze positions because of the complaints.

The INS personnel freeze, observers said, underscores the resolve on the part of the service and its parent body, the Justice Department, to conclude an embarrassing racial dispute that is reminiscent of the FBI’s damaging and costly clashes with African-American and Latino agents.

“They don’t want another FBI on their hands,” said one congressional staffer who has followed the issue closely.

It remains unclear what proposals may emerge from the internal INS investigation into alleged disparate treatment within the ranks. The inquiry’s findings, currently under review by top agency management, are expected to be released shortly.

At the forefront of the allegations are 19 Los Angeles-based immigration agents who have filed a class-action complaint that alleges a pattern of agency discrimination against African-American INS employees nationwide. The Los Angeles-based agents are seeking expedited opportunities for advancement, back pay for promotions they say were wrongly denied, and broad reforms of INS hiring, promotion, evaluation and training procedures.

John Washington, an INS special agent who is spokesman for the Los Angeles plaintiffs, said the acting commissioner’s decision to impose the freeze was courageous. The agents and their attorney, David L. Ross of Los Angeles, view the move as an effort to preserve managerial and supervisory positions, some of which could be made available to African-American agents as part of an eventual proposed settlement.

“The INS realizes that it’s in their best interest to have some damage control because the claim is meritorious,” Ross said. “They can’t change what happened in the past, but they can start to change what happens in the future.”

INS officials have not admitted discrimination against African-American employees, nor have they commented on the merits of the discrimination complaint. But spokesmen have also pointedly refrained from publicly denying the allegations or dismissing the charges outright.

The controversy has erupted at a particularly sensitive time for the INS, whose management has been assailed in numerous audits and reports and in congressional testimony in recent years. Clinton Administration reformers are eventually expected to zero in on the agency and its $1.5-billion annual budget. INS Commissioner-designate Doris Meissner faces confirmation hearings next month.

The INS’ own employment statistics indicate that the agency’s almost 2,000 African-American workers are proportionately under-represented in supervisory and managerial ranks--and are almost nonexistent at the loftiest agency echelons.

African-Americans represent more than 11% of the agency’s estimated 16,500-worker, full-time payroll, statistics show, but they occupy fewer than 6% of the best-paying, mostly supervisory and management positions. Moreover, no African-Americans occupy any of the influential district director or chief Border Patrol agent positions nationwide.