Memo Angers INS Agents

U.S. immigration authorities at Los Angeles International Airport are so pressured to carry out inspections of arriving international passengers that a top official has instructed agents “not to respond” to concerns from airlines about illegal immigrants elsewhere in the airport.

The controversial directive, outlined in an internal memo to LAX inspectors last week, was meant to focus the airport’s almost 300 immigration officers on inspection duties and have them avoid other, potentially distracting tasks.

But the move has enraged many veteran officers who call it an example of misplaced agency priorities that could endanger the public.

The squabble is indicative of the kinds of problems that continue to plague the Immigration and Naturalization Service--which, despite years of budget increases, lacks enough staff to perform its wide-ranging and often-conflicting duties. Managers often rely on a triage approach, ignoring some problem areas while attacking those deemed more crucial.

At airports, inspectors must both facilitate the arrival of legitimate passengers and quickly spot lawbreakers attempting to sneak into the country, often with counterfeit documents. The INS prevention system has come under withering criticism since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because three of the 19 foreign-born hijackers had overstayed their visas.

Especially drawing officers’ indignation is wording in the memo that appears to discourage officers from responding to incidents of suspected terrorism and other serious crimes in the interest of keeping an eye on arriving international flights.

“People are shocked and appalled,” said one veteran INS officer, who asked not to be named, fearing retribution. “It places the traveling public in grave danger.”

Thomas J. Schiltgen, INS district director in Los Angeles, denied that the memo showed the agency is backing away from its efforts to combat terrorism--the top priority of the service’s parent agency, the Justice Department. The INS in Los Angeles and nationwide has worked closely with the FBI since Sept. 11.

“We’re focused on terrorism; we’re focused on criminals,” said Schiltgen. “We just need to decide who, administratively, we have assigned to do that work.”

INS staffing at LAX has increased steadily in recent years, but authorities rely heavily on overtime hours to keep up with burgeoning numbers of passengers. Tightened security since Sept. 11 has resulted in some shuffling of duties and other changes--including the carrying of firearms by all inspectors.

In fiscal 2001, immigration officers at LAX inspected 8.5 million arriving passengers, the second highest total in the nation.

Since at least the fall of 2000, internal documents show, INS management at the airport has sought to cut down on investigating “non-arriving illegal aliens”--that is, those who do not disembark from international flights. Many are illegal immigrants recently smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border and now headed to destinations elsewhere in the United States. LAX is a major trans-shipment point for such groups.

The memo that caused the LAX flare-up was sent Tuesday by Michael A. Cochran, acting deputy port director. Prompting the directive, one official said, was an incident a few days earlier in which INS officers, responding to a report from an airline, detained 10 suspected illegal immigrants from Central America who were about to board a flight for the East Coast. All were released after six hours or so in custody, the official said.

“Unless there is some special, extenuating circumstance, we are not to respond to calls from airlines requesting that we examine the documents of suspected illegal aliens,” Cochran wrote on behalf of G. Thomas Graber, the INS port director. Even “if something ‘special’ does come up, i.e., suspected terrorists, kidnapping, slavery or other, we should not go and arrest groups of people.”

The memo cited the difficulties of transporting such suspects into the secure inspection zone, where INS and customs officers examine passengers arriving on international flights.

“Please think about this,” the memo said. “Do you think that they should be brought to within our ‘sterile inspections area?’ ”

Schiltgen acknowledged Friday that the memo’s references to terrorism and serious crimes were inappropriate and would be corrected. “That wasn’t the intent,” he said.

However, in the tense airport atmosphere since Sept. 11, the suggestion that INS agents at LAX should be less than vigilant about illegal immigrants boarding planes stunned some INS officers.

“With all respect, it is precisely this type of thinking which has led to [millions of] illegal aliens living and working in the United States,” one officer wrote in a widely distributed e-mail response. “Our management’s approach to the problem is to tell us what we cannot do to stop this illegal entry.... God help the American public.”