INS Says Criminals Not Naturalized

Under attack from Republicans over its effort to grant citizenship to new immigrants, the Immigration and Naturalization Service denounced as “reckless and divisive” allegations that it is naturalizing criminals and pointed to a record number of expulsions of criminal immigrants in the 1996 fiscal year. In a letter to governors, INS Commissioner Doris M. Meissner said the service “deports criminals, it doesn’t naturalize them.” She said the INS “removed a record 100,000 criminals in the last three years,” as well as more than 60,000 illegal immigrants and hundreds of thousands of others who agreed to leave without going through formal INS proceedings.