Summary: Identifying persons arrested for aggravated felonies as aliens is critical to joint efforts by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and local law enforcement agencies to prevent the release of these persons before INS can take action. INS' Law Enforcement Support Center, whose pilot operations began in July 1994, is an attempt to provide this identification capability. This approach, however, it inherently limited by the name-based systems that it depends upon. Until INS successfully implements a system that identifies persons on the basis of biometric information, such as fingerprints, INS' ability to quickly identify arrested persons as aliens will be limited. INS' planned move to an automated fingerprint database is intended to address the need for better ways to identify persons who will be processed for either enforcement or benefit purposes. Further, accurate and complete criminal alien data in INS' Deportable Alien Control System and the Central Index System are essential. Unless INS' data reliability problems are resolved, INS risks making decision on the basis of inaccurate and incomplete information.
