Consultant Hired to Review INS’ Citizenship Procedure

WASHINGTON —  Responding to scathing congressional criticism, the Clinton administration has taken the unusual step of hiring an outside consultant to conduct a multimillion-dollar review of the naturalization process to “safeguard the integrity” of the system that monitors who becomes U.S. citizens.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno announced the move Thursday and called it an “important milestone” in an effort to revamp a process that congressional oversight committees say has virtually broken down, allowing tens of thousands of applicants to become citizens without required FBI criminal-background checks.

Meanwhile, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said that investigators thus far have found only 168 cases of felons who apparently were naturalized and now face having their citizenship revoked. House Republicans heading the investigation of citizenship practices have predicted that the number ultimately will be in the thousands.

Selected to lead the $4.3-million citizenship “reengineering” effort, said Reno, is Coopers & Lybrand, a “big six” accounting and consulting firm based in McLean, Va.

The review, expected to last as long as two years, is to encompass every facet of citizenship, Reno said, from initial applications through adjudication, the swearing-in ceremony and even the retirement of case records. Along with enhancing integrity, Reno said, she hopes to reduce paperwork and improve service in a program that now faces a quickly expanding backlog of almost 1 million applicants--more than 25% of them in the Los Angeles area.

“Sometimes by streamlining, you achieve more integrity because you don’t let things get lost in a corner,” Reno responded when asked whether such efficiencies could compromise safeguards.

Despite Reno’s optimistic words, Republicans vowed to press their own oversight inquiries.

“The award of this contract looks like a signed confession that the naturalization process is in disarray,” said Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas), who chairs the House Judiciary immigration and claims subcommittee.

Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on national security, called the Justice Department’s decision “a positive sign.” However, he added, “it should have been done months ago.”

Politics has provided a potent backdrop for the controversy over the Clinton administration’s Citizenship USA program, which was launched in August 1995 amid an unprecedented increase in applications that had far outstripped the INS’ capacity to process them. A key factor in the increase was fear of new legislation targeting the rights of noncitizens.

Republicans on Capitol Hill soon launched investigations and condemned Citizenship USA as a device designed to bolster Democratic sign-ups before the 1996 elections. The White House has denied any political motivation, calling the program a legitimate response to processing delays that in some cases stretched to more than two years.

However, the administration has acknowledged serious systemic weaknesses in the citizenship program, including the failure to ensure that all applicants get proper FBI checks completed before they are sworn in. Officials contend that the shortcomings predated the current administration but were accentuated by the avalanche of applications.

Last December, the Justice Department announced a series of initiatives designed to improve the process, including mandatory verification of FBI background checks for all applicants. The government also hired Peat Marwick, the accounting firm, to oversee an INS audit of more than 1 million people naturalized between September 1995 and the end of 1996.

But administration officials said that the hiring of Coopers & Lybrand is the most crucial systemic step, because it implies a complete revamping of a process that is widely considered antiquated and inefficient--criticisms leveled at many INS functions.

The firm will examine all aspects of the naturalization process, Reno said, including organization, use of technology, employee training and civics and language testing for applicants.

The already accomplished reforms in the citizenship process, said Meissner, mean that fraud is “far less of a problem now than it was a year or two years ago.” And she predicted that fraud will continue to decrease as the INS moves ahead technologically, using electronic imaging of fingerprints and bar codes to ensure that prints do not get lost in the system or separated from application packets.