INS Chief Asks for Evidence That Arrest Records Were Falsified

The head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Monday called for agents to report any evidence that arrest records have been falsified to paint a flattering picture of Operation Gatekeeper, the high-profile Border Patrol crackdown, but said she knows of nothing to dispute its success.

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner promised full confidentiality to those who speak to the in-house investigation of reports that supervisors for the U.S. Border Patrol are altering figures or enforcement procedures to create the impression that the border is under control.

“Frankly, I have no reason to believe these allegations, nor do they challenge the fact that Operation Gatekeeper has been a success,” Meissner said at a news conference in the midst of the world’s busiest border crossing, San Ysidro.

The week-old investigation in San Diego comes at a difficult moment for the INS. The Justice Department has just completed a year-long inquiry into allegations that senior INS officials in Miami engaged in a frantic 11th-hour cleanup of the overcrowded Krome Detention Center prior to a June 1995 congressional visit. Scores of inmates, including some with criminal records, allegedly were transferred or released.

That investigation, Meissner said, is now at the disciplinary stage.

“I will not tolerate any misconduct,” she said. “The integrity and reputation of the Border Patrol and the INS are our most critical asset here in San Diego, where, for the first time in years, we have seen fundamental changes in the border that we enforce.”

Some observers said that only thorough scrutiny of INS practices in San Diego, perhaps by an outside agency, will put the issues raised here to rest.

“The in-house investigation in Miami found no problem, but the Justice Department found a cover-up,” said Ira Mehlman, a Los Angeles spokesman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit Washington-based group that lobbies for stricter immigration controls. “It’s too early to say whether there’s been a cover-up.”

One indication of the success of Operation Gatekeeper, Meissner said, is the relocation of prime smuggling points from communities such as Chula Vista and Imperial Beach into rugged, isolated mountains in eastern San Diego County.

In addition, narcotics seizures along the California border jumped 67% in the eight months to May 1996, according to U.S. Customs Commissioner George J. Weise. He said arrests related to the seizures increased by 60%.

Cross-border commuting also has been brought up to speed, officials say.

Twenty-one lanes are now open at the San Ysidro crossing, compared with 15 last year, Meissner said. According to official figures, the average wait for a motorist entering California at San Ysidro in June was 16 minutes--a steep drop from the 25-minute wait in June 1995.

Meissner said the San Ysidro port of entry has come a long way since its freewheeling days two years ago, when she witnessed smugglers of illegal immigrants operating freely, bringing their clients up the walkway to the main pedestrian gate.

“I saw other smugglers roaming across the vehicle lanes, directing their loads through the port,” Meissner said. “I saw a port of entry that was at times neither safe nor secure.”