The Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation and Inspections Division, conducted a review of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) practice of escorting criminal aliens on commercial airlines when the aliens are removed from the United States to non-border countries. The review focused on violent felons or those who have exhibited unruly, disruptive behavior - the most dangerous segment of the criminal alien population - who pose the greatest risk to the traveling public.
We assessed the escort process in four INS districts: Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; and New York, New York. We selected removal cases for our review using alien criminal history information contained in the INS's Deportable Alien Control System, an automated tracking system. We selected cases based on the seriousness of the crimes associated with the aliens and included various alien nationalities. Using the selected cases and a limited number of other cases brought to our attention during the review, we examined a total of 158 cases in which aliens who were being removed should have been escorted by INS officers. 1