It has made virtually no effort to ensure that the private companies providing the tests (and their subcontractors) are not also selling answers. Without such reasonable guarantees, contract testing cannot work. Some INS agents in places like Arlington, Virginia, and Spokane, Washington, have even started rejecting waivers entirely and making applicants take the in-house test instead, a de facto reversal of the INS's privatization efforts. In November, the INS actually terminated its relationship with one of its six contractors, the Florida-based Naturalization Assistance Service. This action grew out of 20/20's exposé. There are currently no signs that the INS will eliminate the entire privatization program, but the other five main providers are wary.
There are, however, a few simple steps the INS could take to salvage a program that, for the most part, makes the difficult citizenship process run more smoothly and efficiently, for agents and applicants alike. For starters, the INS could monitor the testing. "Auditors, random site inspections, even undercover operations--these are the most obvious ways to improve performance," says William D. Eggers, director of the Reason Foundation's Privatization Center.
Other, less costly steps might also work. Subcontractors could submit themselves to the same FBI background check that naturalization applicants must pass. This would weed out people who have been convicted of felonies. The INS could insist that all testing times and sites be publicly announced several weeks in advance. This would shine light onto a business that often goes on behind closed doors. Finally, INS agents across the country could be instructed to look carefully at the names of subcontractors appearing on the exam waivers. Department stores routinely post lists of people who write bad checks next to their cash registers. Perhaps agents could be told to pay more attention to who is granting waivers, and to become familiar with which ones seem to have a solid record of producing well-prepared citizenship candidates, and which do not.
Without such measures, the INS will have no choice but to pull the plug on privatization. It might wind up doing what 20/20 did--blaming the profit motive as the reason its privatization experiment did not work. The real reason would be because the agency could not get its act together. But in the meantime, an innovative idea that has helped thousands become American citizens and the INS to become more efficient will suffer.
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