Richard K. Rogers tells FULL DISCLOSURE that the Citizenship application process has been streamlined with new procedures due to allegations made in 1996 that criminals and others were given Citizenship who were not qualified. Because of this problem, many citizenships were revoked and the INS is now digitizing all applicant fingerprint cards and then sent to the FBI who runs a criminal records check. Rogers said that of the 295,000 new citizens 55 people turned out to have criminal records that should have disqualified them. Depending on the type of crime committed some of the people are deportable.

Approximately one fifth of the total INS $400 million annual budget goes for citizenship processing. In the seven county Los Angeles District gets about one fourth of that which would be approximately $100 million budget for citizenship processing.

And what about the non-profit community organizations and churches who were INS contractors to process citizenship applicants? Mr. Rogers said that those contracts have been curtailed because the FBI was rejecting the fingerprint checks. As a result the Federal Government, the Congress decided to pass a law that asked us to bring the fingerprinting back in-house to the INS.

Regarding SPECIAL ORDER 40, Rogers said that while Police Departments across the country have implemented orders for their police officers not to ask if people are in the country legally. The INS does get involved after a person has been arrested and convicted and becomes a “Criminal Alien”. He also said the INS checks all foreign born individuals that are in the jails in the seven counties of the L. A. District.

“It is better we enforce our own laws. Because the laws are so complicated,” Rogers said, “The immigration (law) is so complicated that it’s very difficult for individual law enforcement (agencies) to train their employees sufficiently in the knowledge of general immigration law.”

Rogers was asked what can a citizen do to protect themselves if a criminal alien who has been stalking them, returns after deportation time and again? He said the INS works with probation departments to identify their illegal status and once notified by probation, the INS takes action but is it difficult and frustrating. He went on to say, there are criminals who get across the border and it is unfortunate and we are trying to get the California Law Enforcement identity system so they will call us, as we have an agreement to respond within 24 hours.

But as far as a single citizen reporting a criminal alien who had been deported, Rogers said yes, the INS deportation team would respond. When asked about gang members who are illegal aliens and the L. A. Gang Injunction, Rogers said that the INS is getting criminal warrants from the U.S. District Court and arresting individual criminals, but not necessarily targeting the injunction.

Rogers said there are 450 INS officers to enforce immigration law in the seven county Los Angeles District and there are approximate 1.3 million illegal aliens. He said the INS removes from the U. S. around 10,000 illegal aliens per year and about 7,500 of those are criminal aliens. He went on to say that in 1996 the new immigration law authorized deputizing local law enforcement officers to execute the immigration laws when they identify an individual as being illegally in the United States. But to implement it throughout the U. S. we would not have the resources to respond. So, I believe the MOU (memorandum of understanding) was singed in Salt Lake City, Utah. On the 18th of August 1998, so it is brand new. Here in L. A. it is kind of a wait and see he said.

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