tonado Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 I like the last sentence.------------------------------------------------------http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...ion/5263169.htm A NEW ERA FOR IMMIGRATIONINS WILL FOLD INTO HOMELAND SECURITY Bid farewell to the Immigration and Naturalization Service as you know it. One of the federal government's most dysfunctional and criticized agencies, the INS officially is being absorbed into the massive new Department of Homeland Security as of next Saturday. Hopefully, the restructuring will accomplish its aims: to improve the nation's border security and immigration services. But that's a long-shot. Doing so will be a daunting challenge. The transition alone -- requiring that an ingrained bureaucracy be taken apart and put together in a different configuration -- is guaranteed to create confusion and disarray. That's why Congressional oversight is vital. The goal is that neither national security nor immigrant services be hampered by a lack of coordination between the separate bureaus that will assume immigration-related functions. Lines on an organization chart can be rearranged ad infinitum. But without adequate resources, strong leadership, clear direction, good employees and a performance culture, critical immigration missions will suffer. Coordination will be key. Yet related functions have been placed in three bureaus, each with its own chief. That's likely to hinder communications among them, particularly between the two bureaus in charge of enforcement -- border protection, customs, immigration detention and investigations -- and the wholly separate services bureau charged with managing petitions for naturalization, asylum, family and business-immigration visas among others. As the chain of command for the service bureau differs from that of the enforcement bureaus, decisions by different policymakers may overlap and clash. That is bound to cause problems for both security and services. Whether the services bureau is considering an employment or student visa, it needs to ensure that the person isn't a terrorist or drug dealer. Similarly, how enforcement officers treat visitors at our borders will impact how much money millions of tourists and business people spend in the U.S. economy. Immigration officers in all bureaus must be sensitive to multiple missions. Old INS computer systems, moreover, will have to be revamped if there is any hope for accurate, efficient security checks. Though President Bush promises improved immigration services, critics already point to growing backlogs as resources are shifted to enforcement -- sometimes with dubious or marginal security improvement. Forcing immigrants to report their addresses, for example, is pointless without the computer systems or people to manage the data. Link to comment
skibum Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 I do not expect anything will change as long as the people do not demand that the administrations enforce the laws that Congress has passed. Congressional oversight will do no good as long as Congress continues to help people evade the very laws that it has passed. Link to comment
Mick Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Let's see if I have this straight. Critical immigration missions will fail without, and I quote: "adequate resources, strong leadership, clear direction, good employees and a performance culture." Can anyone one think of any government agency that has ever consistently had these characterisitcs? In the short term, my view is that this changeover will only make matters worse. IMHO. Thanks for posting this Tony. B) Link to comment
bob Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 They did accomplish one thing! They raised the fees for all the INS applications today! New fees for filing AOS and EAD went up $100 today! Link to comment
Guest R2D2 Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Pentagon spy database funding revealed By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.comFebruary 27, 2003, 4:42 PM PT WASHINGTON--The U.S. Defense Department has awarded millions of dollars to more than two-dozen research projects that involve a controversial data-mining project aimed at compiling electronic dossiers on Americans. Nearly 200 corporations and universities submitted proposals to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, according to government documents brought to light by a privacy group Thursday. John Poindexter, who oversees the agency's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, approved 26 of them last fall, including grants to the University of Southern California, the Palo Alto Research Center, and defense contractor Science Applications International. Over the last few months, TIA has become a lightning rod for criticism, with Republican and Democratic legislators speaking out against it on privacy and security grounds. On Feb. 20, as part of a large spending bill for the federal government, Congress approved additional scrutiny of research and development on the TIA project. Those restrictions do not halt TIA research. They would permit the 26 grants to be fully funded if Poindexter sends Congress a "schedule for proposed research and development" that includes a privacy evaluation, or if President George W. Bush certifies that TIA is necessary for national security. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a civil liberties group in Washington, won a court order forcing Poindexter to disclose approximately 180 pages of documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents show that funds for TIA and two related information-analyzing projects, Genisys and Genoa II, have been awarded to companies including CyCorp of Austin, Texas, for a "Terrorism knowledge base," 21st Century Technologies of Austin, Texas, for "AUDIT: Automated Detection, Identification, and Tracking of Deceptive Terrorist Activity," and Evolving Logic of Topanga, Calif. for "Confronting Surprise: Robust Adaptive Planning for Effective Total Information Awareness." University recipients include the University of Southern California, for its "JIST: Just-In-caSe just-in-Time Intelligence Analysis" system, and Colorado State University. Columbia University applied for, but did not receive, a grant for its proposal for "Behavior-Based Profiling of User Accounts to Detect Malicious, Errant, and Fraudulent Internet Activity." "It shows the breadth and impact of this program, which its defenders have tried to describe as being on the drawing board or in the research stages," said EPIC director Marc Rotenberg. "The activity is extraordinary. This is a Defense-funded project for domestic surveillance, and it's very important not to lose sight of that." It's unclear how much money is being awarded to the grant recipients. A Defense Department notice suggested that the "annual budget for each is in the $200,000 to $1,000,000 range." A DARPA representative on Thursday declined to provide additional details about funding or on what the projects entail, saying the proposals would not be made public. "The companies put private information in their proposals," the representative said. A representative of Veridian, of Arlington, Va. refused to disclose details. The information-system provider won an unspecified amount for a grant proposal titled, "Human augmentation of reasoning through patterning." "This is an area that I need to refer you directly to DARPA," the Veridian representative said. "They're the customer, and they've asked us to refer calls to them." Print story E-mail story Order reprints Send us news tips Related News Link to comment
Mick Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 George Orwell would just wink, nod, and say: "I told you so!" Link to comment
Eric&Yuhui Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 They did accomplish one thing! They raised the fees for all the INS applications today! New fees for filing AOS and EAD went up $100 today! God ! Then I have to cut out Yuhuishopping allowance in GZ Monday from 6.75$ to 5 $ Owen, you're hearing this??? Link to comment
owenkrout Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Your out of luck, Eric. My wife has now decided that she would like to have a US style wedding also. She had a traditional Chinese wedding with the red cheepa (sp?) I thought it was really nice. Now she is planning on buying a white wedding dress in GZ while she is there. Last trip it was pearls. Guess its time to start another part time job! Of course if your sweetie goes along, she will have to keep up with my wife on the shopping spree! Link to comment
Eric&Yuhui Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Your out of luck, Eric. My wife has now decided that she would like to have a US style wedding also. She had a traditional Chinese wedding with the red cheepa (sp?) I thought it was really nice. Now she is planning on buying a white wedding dress in GZ while she is there. Last trip it was pearls. Guess its time to start another part time job! Of course if your sweetie goes along, she will have to keep up with my wife on the shopping spree! Nope.. Yuhui's AMEX spending limit on any one day is now 10 bucks....Thank you internet !!! LOL Just kidding baby..Spend all you want with this Owen visa-blister wife of his ...... then catch a cab home on Wednesday !!!! Owen: Yuhui told me they were talking .. then phone went dead.... Thank God ! we saved 100 bucks right there buddy !!! Link to comment
Mick Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Your out of luck, Eric. My wife has now decided that she would like to have a US style wedding also. She had a traditional Chinese wedding with the red cheepa (sp?) I thought it was really nice. Now she is planning on buying a white wedding dress in GZ while she is there. Last trip it was pearls. Guess its time to start another part time job! Of course if your sweetie goes along, she will have to keep up with my wife on the shopping spree! The GZ economy is about to experience quite a boom. Link to comment
owenkrout Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Your out of luck, Eric. My wife has now decided that she would like to have a US style wedding also. She had a traditional Chinese wedding with the red cheepa (sp?) I thought it was really nice. Now she is planning on buying a white wedding dress in GZ while she is there. Last trip it was pearls. Guess its time to start another part time job! Of course if your sweetie goes along, she will have to keep up with my wife on the shopping spree! Nope.. Yuhui's AMEX spending limit on any one day is now 10 bucks....Thank you internet !!! LOL Just kidding baby..Spend all you want with this Owen visa-blister wife of his ...... then catch a cab home on Wednesday !!!! Owen: Yuhui told me they were talking .. then phone went dead.... Thank God ! we saved 100 bucks right there buddy !!!Oh, now I understand. My wife said the phone was tired. I wasn't sure what she meant by that. Link to comment
Mick Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 George Orwell would just wink, nod, and say: "I told you so!" Frankly, it scares the hell out of me. Seems like the term 'Civil Liberties' has been walled up inside Fortress America.It is an alarming trend. I often wonder what kind of counter-culture shock I will experience when we finally get to return to America. Much has changed since I left in '98 and some of the changes are, quite frankly, a bit frightening to me. I want to thank those who posted these articles as news, especially on the campus where I live, is somewhat hard to get at times. Link to comment
bobmal99 Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Where is there a list of the new fee's??? Link to comment
tonado Posted February 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Where is there a list of the new fee's???http://travel.state.gov/2002feechart.html Future question about visa process should use the new forum: US Visa Application Process. Link to comment
tonado Posted February 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Bob, AOS fee should be in here. http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/formsfee...forms/index.htm Link to comment
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