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From: http://www.immigration-law.com/Canada.html
03/18/03: Confusing State of Local District Offices of the DHS
DHS has split the prior INS local district office into the three (3) district management systems: BCBP for Immigration Inspection and External Enforcement, BICE for Internal Immigration Enforcement, and BCIS for Adjudication of Applications and Petitions. Accordingly, when it comes to the NSEERS Special Registration business, obviously, the incoming aliens' special registration is expected to be handled by the immigration inspectors at the port-of-entry under the line of command of BCBP. However, when it comes to the call-in special registration of the resident nonimmigrants in the country, it is unclear whether it is within the jurisdiction of BCIS or BICE. The web site of BICE, however, claims the special registration as one of its functions, despite the seemingly obvious sources of answers in the internal budgetary appropriation allocations for these agencies on special registration management.
Clarification of this question is very important for both the immigration application/petition filers and the call-in special registration nonimmigrants. Should it fall under the BCIS jurisdiction, the people who process and wait for adjudication of various immigration applications and petitions will suffer tremendously in terms of the processing times and delays. People will recall that under the INS system, the first tier of special registration was handled by the local immigration adjudicators, which tied up the hands of most of the local adjudicators, resulting in the stand-still stage of processing times of applications and petitions at the local district offices throughout the country. There is an indication that despite the BICE web site claim of its jurisdiction over special registration (apparently meaning call-in special registration as the incoming nonimmigration special registration is the business of the immigration inspectors of BCBP), when it comes to the local practice, the agency appears to take the same path that its predecessor, INS, had taken. At least, one local BCIS authority has started sending out messages that the local BCIS office will be totally tied up with the call-in special registration and there will be no adjudicator available to handle immigration applications and petitions at least until May this year, and depending on the call-in special registration program expansion, the local cell of BCIS will not be able to handle immigration benefit applications and petitions even beyond May 2003!
Currently, BCIS and BICE operate under two separate lines of command and this confusion should eventually be resolved at the level of Deputy Secretary or Secretary of DHS. Should the current practice continue, BCIS promise and the Congress/White House promise to reduce backlogs of immigration benefit applications processing times will be critically damaged, at least at the local levels.
03/18/03: Homeland Security Merger Raises Chain-of-Command Issues
One of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's top priorities is to merge the cultures of his 22 adopted agencies into one gigantic, seamless department. But according to the news report, already rumblings are being heard that, in Ridge's attempt to create more direct lines of authority, some key underlings will be too far down the chain of command to be heard. For instance, Eduardo Aguirre Jr., who's been nominated to be director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, reporting to the Deputy Secretary, who instead reports to the Secretary. Demetrios G. Papademetriou, a Labor Department official in the first Bush administration, worries that immigration policy will be lost in the security-focused shuffle, so he's counseling Aguirre on the ways of bureaucracy. "I want him to become an effective voice within the administration, and he's not going to be able to do that within the department," Papademetriou contends. "He's going to have to look to the White House," which"”unlike Ridge"”has reason to care about the Hispanic vote. If the heads of Homeland Security agencies do begin trying to bypass Ridge, the situation could get further confused.
Creation of the mammoth organization with the design to establish a clear line of command has resulted in steeper layer of line of command. Consequently, as the layer moves further and further down to the local cells, they will be far removed from the decision-making process in Washington, D.C.
03/18/03: Confusing State of Local District Offices of the DHS
DHS has split the prior INS local district office into the three (3) district management systems: BCBP for Immigration Inspection and External Enforcement, BICE for Internal Immigration Enforcement, and BCIS for Adjudication of Applications and Petitions. Accordingly, when it comes to the NSEERS Special Registration business, obviously, the incoming aliens' special registration is expected to be handled by the immigration inspectors at the port-of-entry under the line of command of BCBP. However, when it comes to the call-in special registration of the resident nonimmigrants in the country, it is unclear whether it is within the jurisdiction of BCIS or BICE. The web site of BICE, however, claims the special registration as one of its functions, despite the seemingly obvious sources of answers in the internal budgetary appropriation allocations for these agencies on special registration management.
Clarification of this question is very important for both the immigration application/petition filers and the call-in special registration nonimmigrants. Should it fall under the BCIS jurisdiction, the people who process and wait for adjudication of various immigration applications and petitions will suffer tremendously in terms of the processing times and delays. People will recall that under the INS system, the first tier of special registration was handled by the local immigration adjudicators, which tied up the hands of most of the local adjudicators, resulting in the stand-still stage of processing times of applications and petitions at the local district offices throughout the country. There is an indication that despite the BICE web site claim of its jurisdiction over special registration (apparently meaning call-in special registration as the incoming nonimmigration special registration is the business of the immigration inspectors of BCBP), when it comes to the local practice, the agency appears to take the same path that its predecessor, INS, had taken. At least, one local BCIS authority has started sending out messages that the local BCIS office will be totally tied up with the call-in special registration and there will be no adjudicator available to handle immigration applications and petitions at least until May this year, and depending on the call-in special registration program expansion, the local cell of BCIS will not be able to handle immigration benefit applications and petitions even beyond May 2003!
Currently, BCIS and BICE operate under two separate lines of command and this confusion should eventually be resolved at the level of Deputy Secretary or Secretary of DHS. Should the current practice continue, BCIS promise and the Congress/White House promise to reduce backlogs of immigration benefit applications processing times will be critically damaged, at least at the local levels.
03/18/03: Homeland Security Merger Raises Chain-of-Command Issues
One of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's top priorities is to merge the cultures of his 22 adopted agencies into one gigantic, seamless department. But according to the news report, already rumblings are being heard that, in Ridge's attempt to create more direct lines of authority, some key underlings will be too far down the chain of command to be heard. For instance, Eduardo Aguirre Jr., who's been nominated to be director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, reporting to the Deputy Secretary, who instead reports to the Secretary. Demetrios G. Papademetriou, a Labor Department official in the first Bush administration, worries that immigration policy will be lost in the security-focused shuffle, so he's counseling Aguirre on the ways of bureaucracy. "I want him to become an effective voice within the administration, and he's not going to be able to do that within the department," Papademetriou contends. "He's going to have to look to the White House," which"”unlike Ridge"”has reason to care about the Hispanic vote. If the heads of Homeland Security agencies do begin trying to bypass Ridge, the situation could get further confused.
Creation of the mammoth organization with the design to establish a clear line of command has resulted in steeper layer of line of command. Consequently, as the layer moves further and further down to the local cells, they will be far removed from the decision-making process in Washington, D.C.
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