Agents of Deception

In June, in response to news accounts about the OIG report, Commissioner Doris Meissner announced that she was sending a management-review team to Miami. She also sent two high-ranking staffers to take control at Miami International Airport and the Krome Detention Center.

Seated in his windowless office at the airport, Michael Hrinyak, the acting supervisor, rattles off a list of recent improvements: the hiring of dozens of new inspectors, cultural-diversity classes for employees, management training for supervisors. And he predicts that immigration problems will be solved by "thinking outside of the box" and declares that "Miami will be the airport that works."

Hrinyak speaks of boosting morale, of pilot programs and sophisticated information systems. He is impressively versed in INS policy and practice. And in case he becomes distracted or his concentration wavers, he keeps a reminder tacked to the wall beside him, a souvenir from the congressional delegation's June 1995 visit, a helpful hint of how to stay on track. It is one of Michael Wixted's signs, and it advises: "Tell the Congress the Truth

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