Immigration: Proposed Closing of INS' (Immigration and Naturalization Service) Northern Regional Office: Benefits Uncertain

摘要

The merit of closing Northern Regional Office (NRO) is uncertain. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has not done sufficient analysis to establish the extent of expected benefits from the proposed restructuring of regional offices. The cost benefit that INS stated would result from closing NRO was $3.7 million annually beginning in fiscal year 1987. (The figure for 1986 would have been lower because of various one-time closing costs such as employee severance pay and unemployment benefits.) According to INS' proposal, these cost reductions assumed that all of NRO's 84 full-time permanent positions would be eliminated, and other INS regional offices would absorb the transferred workload without increases in staff. Officials from the other three regions told us that INS headquarters officials, before announcing the proposal, did not ask if the regions could absorb the additional workload without increases in staff.