Immigration Sting in San Diego Is Under U.S. Review : Law enforcement: Bogus letters offering work permits lured 60 people to their arrests last month.

A controversial and widely criticized U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service sting carried out by local authorities last month is being reviewed by officials in Washington who fear the operation may have undermined the agency’s credibility.

Local INS officials mailed letters to more than 600 immigrants thought to be in the United States illegally, offering them a work permit if they reported to the downtown INS office on July 20. The letters said the immigrants qualified for a permit under the nonexistent “Immigration and Nationality Act of 1993.”

Plans for the operation, which included sending the misleading letter on INS stationery, had been approved by INS headquarters in Washington.

INS spokesman Duke Austin said this week that “the operation in San Diego is under review.”

“We’re reviewing the advisability of using a bogus immigration benefit as the point for a sting operation. Specifically, we’re reviewing whether it was productive or counterproductive. . . . I have nothing more to add at this time,” Austin said.

Rudy Murillo, INS spokesman in the San Diego district, declined to comment on the review.

However, an immigration official in Washington who asked not to be identified said the agency has already agreed on one change as a result of the negative publicity that resulted when The Times reported the sting last month.

If the INS continues to use sting operations, letters sent to immigrants targeted for deportation will not be written on INS letterhead, the source said, adding that some officials in the INS see the sting as “a colossal mistake.”

“What they should announce is that they will not have any more sting operations in the future,” said Carl Shusterman, a Los Angeles immigration attorney and former INS prosecutor.

“Stings like this are ineffective, illegal, and (INS officials) end up shooting themselves in the foot by dissipating all the trust they built up in the immigrant community over the years,” he said.

Bob Mandgie, the INS official in San Diego who planned the sting, said that only 60 of the more than 600 immigrants who were sent the bogus letter responded to it. Of the 60, 18 were released for a variety of technical reasons, even though some were living in the United States illegally.

After promising a work permit, the letter said: “Since this is a one-time event, failure to report to this office at this time will render you ineligible to receive your employment authorization.”

In an interview last month, Mandgie said most of the immigrants who received the sting letter were “really good people . . . who were in the country illegally.” INS officials said all of the immigrants previously had been ordered deported by immigration judges.

This, however, was disputed by the families of several illegal immigrants targeted in the sting. Ariel Martinez, a Chula Vista resident and a U.S. citizen, said her husband, Antonio, was arrested and deported even though he had already been approved for an immigrant’s visa.

Privately, several officials at the INS regional office expressed dismay over the controversy raised by the sting. One official said the service has been on the defensive since news of the operation surfaced about two weeks ago.

“This was not planned well. The negative publicity that has ensued is going to hurt our credibility in the immigrant community. . . . It has not been a fun time,” said a Southern California INS official who did not want to be identified.

Critics charged that the sting traded on goodwill established among millions of people seeking legal immigration through the amnesty program. They said the sting letter violated the service’s own deportation procedures.