Director of Gatekeeper Probe Is Appointed

The U.S. Department of Justice is dispatching a veteran federal prosecutor to San Diego today to lead an investigation into allegations that U.S. immigration officials are falsifying arrest reports and statistics to present Operation Gatekeeper as a success, a senior official said.

Michael Bromwich, the inspector general for the Department of Justice, said its probe will be directed by Barbara Grewe, an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., who will spend three days in San Diego this week and return shortly to take up residence until the investigation is completed, he said.

Grewe is known for directing the Justice Department investigation into the extent of involvement by its personnel in the “Good Old Boys Roundup,” an annual social gathering of law enforcement officials marked by reports of lewd and racist behavior, Bromwich said.

He said her appointment was “a sign of the seriousness of this investigation.”

“She’s somebody who rolls up her sleeves and gets her hands dirty and I want her out there,” Bromwich said.

Bromwich said the Justice Department investigation will be conducted jointly with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which began to look into the reports July 1. He said he was unsure how long the review will take.

“We know people want answers and we will get them as quickly as possible,” Bromwich said. “I will not let the elections hurry us up. This will not be a politically grounded investigation.”

Presidential politics have heated the debate over the effectiveness of Operation Gatekeeper, a crackdown on illegal immigration in western San Diego County begun in October 1994.

Leaders of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents, have alleged that some Border Patrol agents have complained to them of pressure to manipulate data to reflect a downturn in arrests in western San Diego County in order to make Operation Gatekeeper appear more strategically effective. T.J. Bonner, president of the council, has accused Border Patrol supervisors of trying to “look the other way” when immigrants pass by and reporting fewer immigrants than they actually catch.

Bonner says some agents have reported that immigrants captured on the western edge have been shipped to eastern San Diego County to make it appear that Operation Gatekeeper has succeeded in deterring them from crossing the border in western areas like Imperial Beach and San Ysidro.

The Justice Department recently concluded an 11-month inquiry into allegations that senior officials in Miami engaged in a frantic eleventh-hour cleanup of the Krome Detention Center by senior INS officials in preparation for a congressional visit.

A number of INS administrators were implicated in ordering the transfer or release of a third of the detainees at Krome, including some with criminal backgrounds.

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said that investigation is now at the disciplinary stages.