INS Hampering Investigation, Officials Say : Inquiry: Top administrators, who lawmakers say tried to deceive them on a Miami fact-finding trip, are refusing to speak without attorneys present, Justice Department says.

A U.S. Justice Department investigation prompted by two area congressmen is being hampered because some top Immigration and Naturalization Service officials are refusing to speak with investigators without their attorneys present, officials said this week.

The Justice Department’s inspector general is looking into whether top INS officials attempted to deceive Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) and other lawmakers who were visiting Miami immigration facilities on a fact-finding trip in June.

In a letter to Gallegly, more than 40 INS workers accused their bosses of improperly releasing detainees from their holding cells prior to the lawmakers’ arrival and instructing agents not to wear their weapons belts, handcuffs and holsters while members of Congress were around “to present a kinder, gentler image.”

Since Atty. Gen. Janet Reno called for an investigation of the allegations in July, Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich and his staff have conducted more than 300 interviews throughout the country, Bromwich said in a letter to Gallegly on Monday.

But he said the inquiry has been hampered because five senior INS officials in the Miami, Burlington, Vt., and Washington offices of the INS have refused to answer investigators’ questions without legal counsel present. Arranging those interviews is causing delays.

“Our ability to expeditiously complete the investigation has been hampered by the refusal of certain witnesses to testify,” Bromwich wrote.

In an interview, Gallegly said the delays will only make him monitor the investigation more aggressively.

“When you have five senior-level people who refuse to testify without having an attorney present, I think that means they may have concerns about what they’ve done,” Gallegly said. “Any time anyone knowingly lies to members of Congress and they are high-level federal employees, that is a very serious act. And that’s exactly the allegation we’re talking about here.”

An INS spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter, saying it is standard policy not to speak about ongoing investigations.

Others noted that it is common for top government officials to insist on having an attorney present when being questioned by investigators, and that that should not be read as anything improper.

The controversy began when Gallegly, who chaired a special task force on immigration reform, took a fact-finding trip to Miami on June 10 with a handful of colleagues. After they returned to Washington, Gallegly received a four-page letter from INS workers saying their bosses had been dishonest with the visiting congressmen.

The workers said 149 illegal immigrants were removed from the Krome detention facility outside Miami on June 9 and 10, just before the congressional delegation arrived. Of those, the INS employees said 83 were temporarily sent to other INS detention facilities or local jails, 54 were paroled into the local community and 12 were deported or voluntarily sent back to their native countries.

“We feel that senior INS management officials participated in an active deception as to the true working conditions and size of the problems we face as a nation with illegal immigrants,” the employees wrote. “There were some verifiable actions that they took to make these problems ‘go away’ temporarily while you were here.”

The two-day trip to Miami was one of three arranged by the immigration task force during its preparation of a report on overhauling the nation’s immigration laws. There were earlier stops in the San Diego area on April 8 and New York City on June 9. Each trip drew a handful of the task force’s 54 members. Reps. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) were members of the task force but did not attend any of the trips.