INS Says Data Too Inaccurate for O.C. Probe

WASHINGTON — INS officials said Thursday that the citizenship information being sought by the congressional committee investigating voter fraud is unmanageable, out of date and full of errors and won’t accurately identify illegal voters in Orange County.

Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said many U.S. citizens could be unfairly singled out if the House Oversight Committee relies on the computerized records to target illegal voters in Orange County.

The only way to assure the accuracy of the records, Florman said, would be to manually check the files of tens of thousands of people with names identical to those on the Orange County voter role. Florman said that could take several months.

“It would be a truly Herculean task,” Florman said. “And even then, we might not get 100% reliable results.”

Florman made her remarks a day after a Republican-dominated congressional committee ordered the INS to verify the citizenship of all of Orange County’s 1.3 million voters. The committee is overseeing the election challenge brought by Robert K. Dornan, who lost his congressional seat to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) last November by 984 votes. Dornan has blamed his defeat on widespread voting by noncitizens.

The House Oversight Committee told the INS on Wednesday that if it cannot identify all of the illegal voters in Orange County, then it must give the committee its main citizenship database. The database, Florman said, contains more than 45 million names and 500 million individual records of everyone who has dealt with the INS. The committee gave the INS until next Wednesday to comply with its subpoenas. If the agency fails to comply, top officials could be held in contempt of Congress.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), the chairman of the House committee, said Congress needs the information to determine who fairly won the election last November. He also said that the committee’s investigation could ultimately lead to changes in the federal “motor voter law,” which loosened registration rules and prompted millions of people to sign up to vote.

Motor voter, which took effect Jan. 1, 1995, requires officials at motor vehicle bureaus, welfare offices and selected public places to ask those who come in for services if they want to register to vote.

It was not clear Thursday how--or whether--the INS would comply with the subpoenas. The INS has offered to verify the citizenship of the approximately 173,000 voters in the 46th Congressional District, which comprises Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. But the committee rebuffed the agency and said it wanted it to check all of Orange County’s voters.

Florman, the INS spokeswoman, said the committee’s subpoenas would be nearly impossible to comply with in so short a period. Just copying the main database the committee is seeking--the Central Index System--would take at least two weeks, she said.

Florman outlined several limitations with INS records that she said would make it difficult for the agency to provide accurate information to the committee:

* First, matching the names of Orange County voters with people listed in INS records is extremely difficult, Florman said, because the two databases share only names and dates of birth. So a name in the Orange County voter log--even with a birth date--might turn up many matches on the INS computer.

The only way to verify that the person listed in the Orange County voter role is one of those contained in the INS database is to manually check the paper files of all the people with identical names.

“Nothing like this has ever been done before,” Florman she said. “We are very concerned about the possibility of false matches, and that this will intimidate Latino and Asian residents into not participating in the democratic process.”

* Second, Florman said INS citizenship computers are not uniformly updated. That means, Florman said, many people listed as noncitizens in the INS computers have become citizens.

The only way to know for sure is to manually check the person’s paper files, Florman said.

* Third, releasing the information to Congress could breach the privacy of millions of people and could make public sensitive information. One database the congressional committee requested lists suspected terrorists and international criminals, the same list that is used by immigration officials at airports, seaports and other points of entry.

Though the INS must abide by federal privacy laws, Congress does not and would be free to release the information.

* Fourth, many of the databases only go back a relatively short time. The Central Index System, for instance, contains only the names of people who have had dealings with INS since 1973. A foreign-born person who became a citizen in 1972 might not show up on the database.

Florman said that INS might be able to manage the committee’s demand if it were limited to the 46th Congressional District--not the entire county. After all, Florman said, that district is where the contested election was held.

“There is no evidence that voter fraud was going on anywhere else,” she said.

In related news, Sanchez on Thursday blasted the Republican congressional leadership for blocking her from holding a hearing in Orange County. The Republicans cited the contested election.

In an afternoon news conference, Sanchez was joined by several Democratic colleagues on the House Education and Workforce Committee, who said Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) had promised and then refused to allow Sanchez to hold a hearing on educational issues in her district.

Rep. William L. Clay (D-Mo.), who joined Sanchez at the news conference, said the move signaled that the Republicans have a larger agenda.

“The Republicans want to steal this election,” Clay said. “That’s evident.”