Turf, access feuds beset immigration service

by Stephen Dinan

THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 7, 2005 Top officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledged in internal e-mails that some of their employees are able to decide visa applications without being able to do full background checks, even in important national security cases.
The e-mails provided to members of Congress and obtained by The Washington Times show a robust debate among top leaders at USCIS, the agency charged with deciding who should get green cards or temporary work or study visas, over how to do national security checks while deciding millions of applications a year.
But the e-mails show turf battles within that agency and with other agencies in the Department of Homeland Security are hindering the department's national security mission.
In one situation, the acting deputy director purportedly ordered one investigative branch not to provide information to a top-level team deciding the toughest cases because of turf conflicts with another branch.