Immigration and Naturalization Service Work Force* by Grade Level, Race, Ethnicity, and Sex, Percentage Distribution (Vertical), September 1978

Source: U.S., Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, "INS Minorities by Minority Group Designator Within Series" (Personnel Systems, Washington, D.C.: September 1978), cited in U.S., Commission on Civil Rights, staff paper, "The Immigration and Naturalization Service: An Employment Profile" (November 1978), p. 51.

Immigration and Naturalization Service, Employment in Selected Occupations by Series, Race, Ethnicity, and Sex, September 1978

Source: U.S., Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, "INS Minorities by Minority Group Designator Within Series" (Personnel Systems, Washington, D.C.: September 1978), cited in U.S., Commission on Civil Rights, staff paper, "The Immigration and Naturalization Service: An Employment Profile" (November 1978), p. 58.

minority and female employees have little or no participation in formulating INS policy or in making agency decisions. 15

Obtaining Information from INS

INS maintains a number of district offices throughout the United States that are intended, in part, to provide information to the public about the necessary procedures to be followed in seeking benefits such as the right of U.S. citizens to bring close relatives into the United States, under the immigration laws. Many problems in INS information services were recognized by Leonel Castillo, former Commissioner of INS, shortly after his appointment. After taking office, he gave the following assessment of INS service functions at the Los Angeles district office:

People were lining up at midnight in hopes of being seen the next morning. Many telephone calls were going unanswered, or callers received only a busy signal. Information and forms were difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, without a trip to the office, and oftentimes, an all-day wait in line. 16

Because of these problems, former Commissioner Castillo introduced reforms such as establishing "satellite" offices to dispense forms and information, bringing automation to its operations through the Houston "model office," creating a training course for contact representatives, and improving INS application forms. These reforms have been acknowledged as "very promising starts" in correcting some of the deficiencies." According to one immigration lawyer, these measures have improved INS service to the public:

We have had a new Commissioner of the Immigration Service who has been in office for less than a year. In this short time, as Mr. Rosen has pointed out, and as we as practicing lawyers all recognize, there have been commendable improvements. First of all, there has been a very serious attempt to humanize the Immigration Service, correct many of its inequities, reduce

15 "Employment Profile," p. 46.

16 Leonel Castillo, Commissioner, INS, statement, in Undocumented Aliens: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, 95th Cong., 2d sess. (1978), p. 3. (hereafter cited as Castillo Statement). " Michael Cortes, vice president for research, advocacy, and legislation, National Council of La Raza, testimony, Washington Hearing Transcript, p. 21.

1 Benjamin Gim, testimony before the New York State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, open meeting, New York City, Feb. 16-17, 1978, vol. 1, p. 233 (hereafter cited as New York Open Meeting Transcript).

the backlog, and there has generally been an improvement in the atmosphere.18

Even employee attitudes were said to have improved; one immigration attorney testified that "in terms of discourtesy of the employees of INS, I must admit that they are getting better. "19 Nevertheless, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has received much testimony that numerous problems exist with the INS information services. Former Commissioner Castillo recognized that these services needed to be improved and noted that the INS was considering methods to provide better service to the public. He stated:

With respect to the information functions, we agree that it is in need of improvement. Plans are presently being discussed to transfer responsibility for this function to Adjudications which will also assume responsibility for training contact representatives and the support personnel assigned to the information function. We feel these changes will improve the program by placing it under control of the division which is primarily responsible for granting immigration benefits to the public.20

INS has had difficulty managing its contact points with the public to avoid giving callers the "runaround" when their calls are finally answered. Carl Wack, INS Associate Commissioner for Examinations, 21 freely acknowledged that there are serious problems in dealing with telephone inquiries by the public and attributed this in part to insufficient staffing at INS contact points:

We have in all our offices a problem with respect to the manning of our contact points with the public, where we are overwhelmed. In some areas we have put in as many as 10, 20 phones, manned phones, and even then the telephone company tells us that they take surveys and find that so many hundred calls a day, according to their equipment, have not been responded to.

However, in each office we do have a contact point and the phone that is listed is-will

19 Raymond Campos, testimony before the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, open meeting, Los Angeles, June 15-16, 1978, p. 117 (hereafter cited as Los Angeles Open Meeting Transcript).

20 Leonel Castillo, Commissioner, INS, letter to Louis Nunez, Staff Director, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 28, 1979 (hereafter cited as Castillo Letter).

21 Mr. Wack retired from the Service in May 1980. He was the Associate Commissioner for Examinations from October 1975 until his retirement.

automatically go to that number. That's part of the problem, by trying to concentrate the calls at one point; so that to eliminate the very problem you describe, we, in effect, overwork that particular instrument or individual.

They are not supposed to refer cases unless it is one of difficulty.22

Although Associate Commissioner Wack had instructed his employees to avoid referring callers to several different persons for information,23 this does not help those persons whose calls are not answered.

Persons who, having tried unsuccessfully to contact INS by telephone, go in person to INS offices to obtain information encounter similar difficulties: there are not enough employees detailed to answer questions. Long lines and long waits to obtain needed information and forms must often be endured at INS offices. One community leader in Los Angeles testified:

You had to wait about 4 to 5 hours to be served, or 1 to 2 to 3 hours just to get simple information. I think this is a tremendous...waste of time. . . .24

Similarly, Michael Cortes, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, stated that, "the outrageously long lines and the variety of other obstacles thrown up" tend to discourage people from seeking information and benefits to which they are entitled by law.25

The contact representatives who dispense information to the public at INS offices are hired at the GS-5—7 range and are considered clerical workers rather than immigration officers.26 Prior to 1978, contact representatives were not provided with any formal training in immigration law, although a new training course has since been implemented." Although contact representatives are not immigration officers, 28 they are expected to answer a wide range of questions from the public and to make certain preliminary determinations as to the eligibility of

22 Carl Wack, testimony, Washington Hearing Transcript, pp. 184-85.

23 "It is a problem that we have instructed all of our people to keep to a minimum. One contact point." Ibid., p. 185.

24 Pok Than, vice president of the United Cambodian Community, testimony, Los Angeles Open Meeting Transcript, p. 11.

25 Michael Cortes, testimony, Washington Hearing Transcript, p. 21. 2 Wack Testimony, Washington Hearing Transcript, p. 178. "Leonel Castillo, Commissioner, INS, testimony, Washington Hearing Transcript, p. 122. Three such training sessions were held in 1978. See also exhibit material submitted by Carl Wack, as reprinted in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, hearing, Washington, D.C., Nov. 14-15, 1978, vol. II: Exhibits, pp. 331-32.

INS employees, he said, are characterized by "their lack of sensitivity and lack of respect in dealing with persons who are foreign-language-speaking individuals."33 Michael Cortes, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, also testified that INS employee attitudes are a common problem and can at times be characterized as bigotry. He said that the contact representatives "make disparaging remarks and are generally uncooperative toward folks who happen to be of a different color or language than themselves."34

Rude behavior and uncooperative attitudes, allegations denied by INS,35 on the part of INS employees, while unjustified, are possibly symptoms of a deeper problem, that is, the extent to which the differing needs and problems of persons who come from various countries can be understood. Pedro Lamdagen, a Pilipino immigration attorney, testified that Pilipinos encounter insensitive and brusque treatment from INS employees. He observed that:

there is perhaps an insensitivity to the needs and the possible alternative solutions or answers to the problems of a Pilipino seeking to assist the immigration of relatives or friends, and...there are problems very often in being summarily dismissed or really brusquely given an answer to a problem. . . .36

George Lee, an immigration lawyer, testified that INS officers in the Los Angeles office are not familiar with the difficulty of obtaining necessary documentary evidence from the People's Republic of China, possibly because of their ignorance of the structure of Chinese village life.37

Hiring more employees from minority groups could help to increase INS sensitivity and provide more courteous and knowledgeable service to the public. Such a move could also increase the public perception that INS is aware of and sensitive to community needs. Mr. Lamdagen testified that few Pilipinos are currently employed by INS as contact representatives:

I am
aware of a few Pilipinos that have
recently, in my observation at the local office of
INS, been employed by the Immigration Ser-
vice. I know one inspector in Travel Control,

33 Ibid., p. 251.

34 Cortes Testimony, Washington Hearing Transcript, p. 21. 35 Castillo Letter.

* Pedro Lamdagen, testimony, Los Angeles Open Meeting Transcript, p. 9.

37 George Lee, testimony, Los Angeles Open Meeting Transcript, pp. 1214, 17. His testimony on this problem is presented in greater detail in a later

and I know of a few clerks with the Immigration Service, but to the extent of having muchneeded public contact with inquiries and applicants, I have not seen much of that, no.38

Similarly, Mr. Lee testified that very few Chinese are employed in any position by INS in Los Angeles:

There is an interpreter, and that interpreter is only used at the time when you have a hearing. There is no-there is just one lady clerk, but she is not meeting the public in the room where the Chinese people go in. . . .39

The lack of minority representation and the apparent lack of sensitivity and cultural awareness on the part of some INS employees has resulted in some applicants from minority communities being treated contemptuously and presumed to be wrong until they can prove otherwise. The Rev. Bryan Karvelis of the Brooklyn Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church testified that, in his view, this prevailing negative attitude toward aliens held by employees throughout INS is very burdensome for applicants:

[W]hen you go over to the central office here in Federal Plaza, the way the individuals who come up before judges, who are trying to make applications for various-regularizing their status, the attitude of [INS employees] is always very curt, always tends to put the burden of proof on the person who is coming. "You are wrong. You have to prove that you are right.” It's just a kind of a general overall negative attitude. "We will try to keep you out of this country if we possibly can." I am speaking now, obviously, of attitudes. I'm not speaking now of any illegal actions on their parts, but rather attitudes. 40

This attitude can have a negative effect on many persons by discouraging them from filing applications for benefits to which they may be entitled. Victor Maridueno, a community leader, testified that the public is treated contemptuously by those INS employees who consider aliens "guilty” until proven otherwise:

section of this chapter entitled, “Exercise of Discretion by INS Adjudicators."

38 Lamdagen Testimony, Los Angeles Open Meeting Transcript, p. 10. "Lee Testimony, Los Angeles Open Meeting Transcript, p. 16.

40 Bryan Karvelis, testimony, New York Open Meeting Transcript, vol. 1, Pp. 143-44.