March 13, 2002

8:47 AM

INS grants visas to deceased hijackers- on Monday, the folks at Immigration and Naturalization services finally got around to issuing student visas to Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi (who were aboard the two flights that struck the WTC).
posted by tpl1212 (18 comments total)

Oh. My. God. Good to know those wonderful smart people at the INS are taking background checks seriously.
posted by aacheson at 8:56 AM on March 13, 2002

Ummm... if you read the article, it says that the visas were actually issued in July. What was recently mailed out was some sort of confirmation statement.
posted by sad_otter at 9:05 AM on March 13, 2002

come on, accidents happen with automated MAchines.
posted by clavdivs at 9:10 AM on March 13, 2002

hahah hahahaahh hahahh hahaaa hahahahhha ahahahahhahahahahh hahah hhh aaaaa hahahah....

man.. if u have ever had any thing to do with INS, u would know why i'm laughing. hahahaha... man... these INS people are so damn funny. Here they are sending confirmations to the deceased hijackers, and on the other hand, I had to wait so long, I was 10 days from becoming illegal in this country.. hahaha..

hahaha hah haaa haha INS.. funny.. hahahahahaah
posted by adnanbwp at 9:15 AM on March 13, 2002

what adnanbwp said.
posted by costas at 9:16 AM on March 13, 2002

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Remember to overpay on your income taxes folks, so the good people at the INS won't go hungry this year!
posted by insomnyuk at 9:21 AM on March 13, 2002

While I am no fan of the INS, there is more here than inept INS processes.

There has been little effort to make the INS an efficient agancy. Congress mandated a new somputer system in 1996, according to a similar article in teh Washington Post, but where is the oversight? Why is there a Presidential outcry only when it's embarassing? As adnanbwp pointed out this is more the norm.

My point is, it's not the fault of the people who have to implement the policies handed to them or the contractors who follow the required policies, it's the fault of the people who set the ill-planned policies and then fail to enforce even the most basic principles of them.

Let's mock Congress and the President for this not the INS workers.
posted by Red58 at 9:33 AM on March 13, 2002

That's idiotic. Could they make it any more painfully obvious they were cashing in on the fact that the things just happened to arrive on Monday? As if any agency that handles that much paperwork could orchestrate such an event for only two rather specific people's forms, and THEN get the post office, with all their new procedures, to collaborate and get it there on a specific date.
posted by Su at 9:35 AM on March 13, 2002

The president is very displeased.

No shit. There goes his "let's focus on the war on terrorism and not on the fact that I am obviously ill-prepared to be president" strategy.

I am astonished that while the INS is fixated on detaining and rounding up countless Arab-Americans without any justification, it has failed to take basic steps to ensure that visas are not issued to known terrorists

No shit. Let's not forget the new sweeping powers over INS detainees that were introduced to "fight terror". Very conservative of the INS to totally screw up using the old, not new, policies.

Bush ordered Attorney General John Ashcroft ... to "get to the bottom of this immediately"

Oh-oh. Do I hear someone humming while scraping the bottom of the barrel?
posted by magullo at 9:36 AM on March 13, 2002

So a government agency turns out to be a big, anonymous, incompetent beaurocracy. Big surprise there. Let's make a really big deal out of this and spend lots of taxpayer money and FBI time investigating how it happened instead of focusing on the visas that aren't approved yet and whether or not any of them are hijackers.
posted by plaino at 12:19 PM on March 13, 2002

Good lord, the INS really are completely inept. You know, they decided that they weren't going to accept personal cheques for my change of status to permanent resident, but held on to my forms for another month and a half until the fees went up, then sent them all back and demanded an extra $200. The INS really rips my undies.
posted by animoller at 5:30 PM on March 13, 2002

If you tried, you could not come up with a more shameful act by the INS. Except, perhaps letting the people into the country, and letting them stay initially.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:03 PM on March 13, 2002

I gotta with everyone who has said that the INS is a vast wasteland of bureaucrat inefficiency -- and yes, that is in part due to their lack of modernised computer systems but it is also largely due to the fact that there is little to no accountability for the entire agency. The people that they deal with are not citizens, and in every transaction they are careful to encourage a sense that those in their clutches ought to be grateful that they're being permitted to have a visa/residency permit/citizenship at all, and that one goof or one complaint could bring it all tumbling to the ground. They're the bastard stepchild of the government, and they act like it. No big surprise.
posted by Dreama at 7:25 PM on March 13, 2002

No shit. There goes his "let's focus on the war on terrorism and not on the fact that I am obviously ill-prepared to be president" strategy.

The INS has been inept since Dubya was still in diapers. If you want to blame the Prez for specific actions, it's one thing, but it's not like the agency suddenly became incompetent when he entered office.
posted by lizs at 8:36 PM on March 13, 2002

lizs: See, the danger of having an inept for president is that things will explode in his face. Like this.
posted by magullo at 11:09 PM on March 13, 2002

See, the danger of having an inept for president is that things will explode in his face. Like this.

I would normally agree with a statement like this if it were not so misguided and ignorant. I deal with the INS on a daily basis and have been for the last six years. They are the biggest group of fuck-ups I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. Their escapades are too long to note here but I do not blame Bush for it. If my math is correct, Clinton was in office as well during some of the INS's bungling.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2002

KevinSkomsvold Unfortunately, you choose to insult me conveniently ignoring that fact that the INS is one of the agencies greatly involved in the so-called "War on Terror". If it was a fuck up before, the current government had a GREAT chance, a REAL chance, a NEEDED chance to clean up its act. The public is being asked to bear with the incoveniences with the war on terror, while the government is caught lying on the heightened state of alert of certain agencies that are supposed to cover the ass of that same incoveniences public. So I guess you are the misguided asshole. I mean ignorant.
posted by magullo at 7:38 AM on March 14, 2002

Actually I wasn't personally attacking you, Magullo, just your statement. There is a difference there but I won't stoop to your level by pointing out the specifics.

I am not an apologist for Bush either but using your line of reasoning, we can just get rid of him and all is well? Surely even you can see how illogical that is. Imagine Gore, Nader or Clinton is the same position. Do you seriously think the sitaution would have been ANY different given the long list of INS difficiencies? Try for a moment to put your leftist leanings aside and squeegie that 3rd eye. I think you will see things a little clearer.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:28 AM on March 14, 2002