INS finds new way to help economy?

The Immigration and Naturalization Service Bureau (which deserves to be affectionately referred to among non-residents and semi-residents on non-American origin as the Intentionally Naturally Slow Bureau) just went public on their new scheme (in tune with the Bush "make no mistake" fever sweeping this war-hungry nation) to bring some greens back into the sagging economy (which will drop a couple of inches thanks to the tax cuts for the rich that were announced from Capitol Hill). The INS has long been notoriously slow with processing applications for visas, work permits and such. They clearly never managed to tackle effectively the problem of high incoming traffic. As it turns out, one of their managers (Dawn Randall, heralding the new dawn of innovative ways to reduce workloads) and her (women's lib anyone?) underling Leonel Salazar were indicted on Wednesday for being responsible for a shredfest of 90,000+ documents (American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits). This was in Laguna Niguel, CA, which handles paperwork for residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam and is one of four immigration service centers around the country operated by private contractors under I.N.S. supervision. This would mean that all the affected applicants would have to send in their applications (with relevant fees) all over again, leading to some incoming cash flow. I'm not high on economics, but this may actually benefit the economy a wee bit (like a mite on a roach's limb). "This is awesome", remarks an American friend. To quote Chuck Palahniuk, "awesome" was probably not the right word, but it was the first word that came to mind. Condolences to all the affected parties. I know how they feel. Guess I'm glad I wasn't in any of those states. Who knows, Georgia could be next ... but our stuff goes to Texas, which has been aiming to set new standards in tortoise velocities (living up to the image of the state of the President). {link courtesy: Chris}