General Accounting Office to Probe INS’ Role in Scandal

The U.S. General Accounting Office will investigate allegations that INS agents working to combat street gangs were guilty of collusion with Los Angeles Police Department officers involved in the Rampart Division scandal, congressional spokesmen said Thursday.

A GAO spokesman, however, offered few details on the probe’s focus. He said it would address issues raised by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles). Roybal-Allard requested the investigation after allegations of such collusion were reported by The Times.

“I am initiating an independent investigation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s involvement in the LAPD scandal,” Roybal-Allard said in a statement Wednesday. “Investigators will determine whether or not INS officers overstepped the bounds of their authority and improperly targeted immigrants in Los Angeles.”

Roybal-Allard, who chairs the congressional Hispanic Caucus, said she wants the GAO to determine if the INS “was guilty of collusion with the LAPD.”

She said the 362-page report on the scandal by the LAPD’s Board of Inquiry was narrowly focused on the conduct of LAPD officers and “left many unanswered questions about INS participation in the joint-agency task forces.”

Richard Stana, the associate director for administration of justice issues for the GAO, said Thursday that his office is in the process of staffing the probe. He said its duration would depend on “access to records and people and where the investigation takes us.”

“We would focus on what are the policies and roles and procedures involved in participation in these task forces, and did they follow the policies and procedures,” Stana said. “It really gets to the role of one agency in a multi-agency task force and what are the perimeters of that type of cooperation.”

Stana said GAO staff would try to address all of the questions in Roybal-Allard’s letter this week to Comptroller Gen. David Walker, which include:

* What was the INS’ role and relationship with the LAPD and with the U.S. attorney’s office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms?

* What were the procedures for processing documented or undocumented immigrants encountered or arrested by INS task force agents? How many documented or undocumented immigrants were arrested by the INS and what was the final disposition of their cases?

* What process is the INS supposed to use in identifying and deporting criminal immigrants, particularly those involved in street gangs?

INS agents told The Times that INS agents worked directly with LAPD Rampart officers to deport and prosecute suspected gang members in 1997 and 1998.

One federal document dated May 1998 shows direct communication between the INS’ Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force office and an LAPD officer alleged to be involved in the Rampart scandal. City officials say it is unclear whether the collaboration it details violated the city’s special order barring police officers from initiating police action with the aim of determining a suspect’s immigration status.

Roybal-Allard said the investigation “will look at the INS’ . . . authority to participate in anti-drug efforts in Los Angeles and other cities nationwide. Second, it will examine the INS’ role in Los Angeles to determine if the INS was guilty of collaborating with the LAPD.”

Sharon Gavin, a spokesman for the Western Region of the INS--which is conducting its own internal investigation prompted by allegations reported by The Times--said the INS would cooperate fully with the GAO.

“We have our own investigation going on, and we are as concerned about these events as anybody,” Gavin said.