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January 31, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/31/national/31FILE.html?th
I.N.S. Shredder Ended Work Backlog, U.S. Says
By JOHN M. BRODER
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 30 � Tens of thousands of pieces of mail come into
the huge Immigration and Naturalization Service data processing center in
Laguna Niguel, Calif., every day, and as at so many government agencies, it
tends to pile up. One manager there had a system to get rid of the vexing
backlog, federal officials say. This week the manager was charged with
illegally shredding as many as 90,000 documents.
Among the destroyed papers, federal officials charged, were American
and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other
documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits.
The manager, Dawn Randall, 24, was indicted late Wednesday by a
federal grand jury, along with a supervisor working under her, Leonel
Salazar, 34. They are accused of ordering low-level workers to destroy
thousands of documents from last February to April to reduce a growing
backlog of unprocessed paperwork.
Ms. Randall was the file room manager at the I.N.S. center. Mr.
Salazar was her file room supervisor. The Laguna Niguel center handles
paperwork for residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam and
is one of four immigration service centers around the country operated by
private contractors under I.N.S. supervision.
According to the federal indictment, Ms. Randall ordered her
subordinates last January to count the number of unprocessed papers in the
filing center. They reported that about 90,000 documents were waiting to be
handled. In February, the government says, she ordered at least five
night-shift workers to begin shredding many boxes of papers.
By the end of March, the backlog had been cut to zero, and Ms. Randall
ordered her subordinates to continue destroying incoming paper to keep
current, the government says.
"There was no I.N.S. policy that required this, nor was she ordered to
do it by any superior, as far as we know," said Greg Staples, the assistant
United States attorney handling the case. "The only motive we can think of
is just the obvious one of a manager trying to get rid of a nettlesome
problem."
Mr. Staples said one frustrating thing about the case was that most of
the evidence had been carted out with the trash and that it was impossible
to identify all of the victims.
"It's like a murder case without a body," he said. "We will never
really know what was destroyed."
The shredding was discovered in April by an agency supervisor who
witnessed what appeared to be unauthorized destruction of documents. The
I.N.S. office of internal audit, the Justice Department's inspector general
and the United States attorney's office for Southern California conducted
the investigation that led to this week's indictments.
Ms. Randall and Mr. Salazar were each charged with conspiracy and five
counts of willfully destroying documents filed with the I.N.S. The
conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
Each of the other counts can bring three years in prison.
Their subordinates were not charged because they were low-level
workers acting on instructions, the government said.
After the shredding was discovered, the immigration service opened a
hotline for people who suspected their paperwork had been destroyed. Agency
officials helped petitioners reconstruct their files and gave applicants the
benefit of the doubt if they could not replace the documents they had
submitted, said Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for the I.N.S.'s western regional
office.
She said the agency made an effort last year to publicize the problem
and was confident that it had rebuilt most of the lost files. She also said
that additional staff members had been hired at the center and that
oversight had been tightened.
"Monitoring of the activities of the support services contractor has
been enhanced at the service center," Ms. Haley said. "All materials to be
shredded or destroyed are reviewed first by I.N.S. personnel to make sure
that no unauthorized materials are destroyed."
Ms. Randall's lawyer, Joseph G. Cavallo, said today that he had not
read the charges and would not comment. He said, however, that Ms. Randall
would plead not guilty at her arraignment on Monday. Mr. Salazar's lawyer,
Tom Brown, did not return calls seeking comment.
The four document processing centers are operated under a $325 million
contract with JHM Research and Development of Maryland, which in turn
subcontracts the operations to two other companies. John Macklin, president
of JHM, was unavailable for comment.
Mr. Staples, the federal prosecutor, said the contractors were
cooperating with the investigation and would not be charged unless more
evidence against them was developed.
"If we had found criminal liability, we would have indicted the
companies," he said.
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