When citizens first encounter the widespread breaking of immigration laws in their community, they tend to assume that the federal government has an agency that will want to know. But the INS seems to make no effort to enlist the help of the citizenry in its duties. A Minnesota citizen commented to me: "Did you know there is no number in the phone book for reporting lawbreaking to the INS? All the listed numbers are for 'benefits.' None of them are for law enforcement." A North Carolina citizen said every time he calls the INS main phone number, he gets a recording. He has yet to find a way to talk to even an operator.

Not surprisingly, many citizens don't even try to get help; they just assume that nothing will happen. "Illegal aliens have taken over our neighborhood," said a resident near downtown Washington DC. "We know these people are illegal. It is obvious. They have turned our area into a drug war zone and taken over. We've lost everything, and nobody does anything." But she admitted that she had never even thought of calling the INS for help.

Citizens and local law enforcement agencies all over the country would help the INS to identify the immigration lawbreakers if they were only given a chance and a little encouragement. Instead, citizens are either rebuffed or told by sympathetic INS officers that the "orders from above" won't allow them to enforce the law. From Las Vegas, Raleigh, Prescott, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and many points in between, we were told by citizens that INS agents had told them variously:

"Not permitted to bother any alien at their domicile, any recreation play ground or place of worship." "Not permitted to make vehicle stops when reasonably sure that the occupants might be illegal aliens, based on many years of experience and training." "No illegal alien discovered at highly publicized companies has been terminated, deported nor the firm fined because the INS is working on other arrangements."

An Arizona woman living 35 miles from the Mexican border told me she witnesses,

"[daily] hordes of illegal aliens heading north, both in vehicles and on foot, sometimes in groups of more than a hundred. The border Patrol agents in the field, at least for the most part, are doing the best they can. The problem lies with our governmental hierarchy that won't let them do their job because of policies fueled by payoffs from businesses that want the cheap labor. The border Patrol "grunts" out here are many times told to "not see" groups of illegals, which as a result, continue unhindered into the land of milk and honey to take jobs from American citizens.

"The message we are sending into Mexico is insanely contradictory; on the one hand we put an armed force on the border to stop anyone from illegally entering the country and on the other hand, we have hundreds of businesses actively recruiting these same people. I spoke only last week to a friend who does business in Mexico who told me he sees representatives from American companies openly recruiting."

One exasperated citizen remarked after being repeatedly told that his local INS office would not be levying fines or deporting apprehended illegal aliens, "It appears that the local INS has metamorphosed from an agency enforcing U.S. borders or employment related immigration laws into an illegal-immigrant service agency. Clearly, the local INS is deeply involved in wide-scale harboring of illegal aliens."

Excerpted from Testimony to the U.S. Congress, May 15, 2001, by Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA.com

Editor's note: On November 25, 2002, the President signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 into law. This law transferred INS functions to the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Immigration enforcement functions were placed within the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security (BTS), either directly, or under Customs and Border Protection (CBP) (which includes the Border Patrol and INS Inspections) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (which includes the enforcement and investigation components of INS such as Investigations, Intelligence, Detention and Removals).

As of March 1, 2003, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was abolished and its functions and units incorporated into the new Department. Below are links to Web information about the new locations, responsibilities and contacts (HQs/field) of the former INS immigration services and immigration enforcement units. For more information, click here.