INS Workers Leave Shreds Of Doubt

A federal grand jury has indicted two workers at an Immigration and Naturalization Service office on charges they destroyed tens of thousands of documents to eliminate a backlog of paperwork.

The shredded documents — as many as 90,000 — included applications for asylum, citizenship, visas and work permits, and supporting documents such as U.S. and foreign passports and birth and marriage certificates, according to the indictment.

Dawn Randall, 24, and Leonel Salazar, 34, were each charged with one count of conspiracy and five counts of willfully destroying the documents, which had been sent to the INS' California Service Center in Laguna Niguel.

The data processing center handles paperwork received from people in Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam.

The indictment Wednesday alleges that Randall, a file room manager, ordered Salazar, a supervisor, and others to shred unprocessed documents last February after the backlog reached about 90,000.

The indictment also says Randall told Salazar and others to shred the documents on the evening shift to avoid detection by other workers.

A month later, the backlog was reported at zero. Federal prosecutors said Randall and Salazar continued shredding incoming documents to hold down the backlog until INS officials discovered the activity on April 4, 2002.

The other workers were not charged because they were lower level workers acting on instructions, prosecutors said.

The immigration service opened a hot line for people who suspected their paperwork had been destroyed and gave applicants the benefit of the doubt if they could not replace documents.

The INS was confident it had rebuilt most of the lost files, INS spokeswoman Lori Haley said.

Randall and Salazar were scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.