COAST GUARD, TSA, INS TRANSFER TO HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT

COAST GUARD, TSA, INS TRANSFER TO HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT    The U.S. Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service will formally become part of the Department of Homeland Security March 1.
   Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security, in a ceremonial handover of the Coast Guard from the Department of Transportation, said the Coast Guard’s “military and maritime mission will be a cornerstone” of the Homeland Security Department.
   In its first year — also as part of the Transportation Department — the TSA expanded to having 64,000 employees. Under Secretary of Transportation Adm. James M. Loy said the TSA has met a Congressional mandate to screen all air passengers, and will screen all airline baggage by Dec. 31.
   The INS will become part of the new Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services within the Department of Homeland Security. Asylum and refugee processing, special status implementation for aliens, and naturalization will fall within BCIS’s purview.
   The remaining functions of the INS will be incorporated into two new divisions. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will comprise U.S. Customs and INS’s investigative and interior enforcement functions, as well as U.S. Customs’ air and maritime assets and the Federal Protective Services.
   The second new division, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, will include inspection services from the INS and Customs, as well as the Border Patrol and the office of Agricultural Quarantine Inspections.