The Bush INS

Time for accountability

‘I KNEW a lot of folks who are naturalized citizens and immigrants,” James Ziglar lamely responded when asked at a House hearing last March what specialized experience qualified him to serve as commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. When he was nominated in the spring of 2001, the former business executive and self-described libertarian freely admitted that he had “no discernable experience in the field of immigration law and policy”; but his boyhood friendship with Trent Lott and a two-year stint as Senate sergeant-at-arms that won him powerful friends across the aisle were seen as sufficient qualifications for the new chief of the beleaguered INS.

About the Author

Kate O'Beirne

Time for accountability

‘I KNEW a lot of folks who are naturalized citizens and immigrants,” James Ziglar lamely responded when asked at a House hearing last March what specialized experience qualified him to serve as commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. When he was nominated in the spring of 2001, the former business executive and self-described libertarian freely admitted that he had “no discernable experience in the field of immigration law and policy”; but his boyhood friendship with Trent Lott and a two-year stint as Senate sergeant-at-arms that won him powerful friends across the aisle were seen as sufficient qualifications for the new chief of the beleaguered INS.