According to recent newspaper and radio reports, two INS workers have been indicted on charges of having shredded documents, including applications and INS notices, from February to April 2002 at the INS California Service Center. We first reported these incidents on our web site on May 15, 2002, following the release of a news article in the Los Angeles Times dated May 12, 2002.

According to these latest reports, approximately 90,000 documents were shredded during the period of February to April 2002.

In May, 2002, the CSC Center Director, Don Neufeld, advised that the investigation was prompted by "allegations" that the contractor may have improperly shredded documents in the "returned as undeliverable" mail. Normally, a process is followed to insure that returned documents are sent to the correct address. However, it appears that some of these "returned as undeliverable" documents may have been shredded before the proper procedures were followed to make certain these documents were sent out to the correct address.

The CSC is not certain that the document shredding was limited to merely the undeliverable mail. The investigation is "ongoing" and we will provide further updates when available. INS CSC Director Neufeld admitted in May 2002 that it is possible that if original approval notices were returned as "undeliverable", such documents could have been shredded.

The CSC has assured the legal community that precautionary measures will be taken to ensure that cases are not denied due to any failure to respond to requests for evidence or any other issues that may have been caused by the unlawful shredding of documents. We are monitoring our cases closely and following up with the INS on cases as we deem appropriate.

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