Hijacker Visas Show 'Incompetent' INS

ByABC News
March 18, 2002, 12:40 PM

— -- A congressman says visas sent for two dead hijackers "show how incompetent the INS is." More than 160 O'Hare Airport workers have criminal histories. Thousands are flocking to the Pennsylvania field where Flight 93 crashed.

Hijacker Visas Show Incompetent INS

W A S H I N G T O N, March 14 The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said today that the approval of visas for two Sept. 11 hijackers offers new evidence why the Immigration and Naturalization Service should be abolished.

"It certainly showed how incompetent the INS is," Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said on CBS' The Early Show. "It is one fiasco after the other."

Sensenbrenner's comments drew immediate ire from the union thatrepresents 24,000 INS employees. The American Federation ofGovernment Employees said responsibility lies with the contractorthat processed the forms.

"Experienced INS workers who have been working 12-hour shiftsto fight the war on terrorism should not be wrongly accused for acontractor's serious error," said Bobby L. Harnage, nationalpresident of the union.

The INS action also got the attention of President Bush, who onWednesday spelled out his displeasure on learning that studentvisas for Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi were delivered sixmonths after they flew hijacked jetliners into the World TradeCenter.

Bush ordered the attorney general to investigate and press theINS to do better. "They got the message and hopefully, they'llreform as quickly as possible," Bush said at a news conference.

The president first said he was "stunned, and not happy" whenhe learned about the visas. "Let me put it another way: I wasplenty hot," he added.

Bush said he was unhappy that the visas remained in theimmigration pipeline even though the names on the forms were widelyknown. He said INS Commissioner James Ziglar was responsible for"this embarrassing disclosure," but should be given a chance torectify the problem.

"His responsibility is to reform the INS; let's give him timeto do so. He hasn't been there that long," Bush said.

Sensenbrenner is proposing to replace the INS with two separateagencies that would be under the control of an assistant attorneygeneral. He said Ziglar does not have the proper managerialbackground to run either agency.