• MEMBERS

INS needs to ease adoption process

In December, INS officials suspended the processing of adoptions by Americans of Cambodian and Vietnamese children. About 150 American families had already completed the adoption process overseas, including at least eight locally. But they remained stuck in a legal nightmare on the American end. The INS has since cleared 95 of these adoptions -- in some cases only after federal lawmakers got involved -- but the process continues to be agonizingly slow.

INS officials say they must be cautious because of reports of illegal baby trafficking throughout Vietnam and Cambodia, since these babies could ultimately wind up in the United States.

That's a valid concern. But it shouldn't take this long to check the validity of these adoptions. And an INS spokesman conceded recently that, while the investigation continues, not one case of baby trafficking has been found since December. This is another example of poor performance at the INS -- the same bureaucracy that delivered Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-shehhi's student pilot visas six months after they took part in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Which is why Congress is properly demanding the INS to hire 200 investigators and another 200 inspectors.

A more efficient Immigration and Naturalization Service will certainly do better at guarding America's borders. It also must do better at allowing American parents to bring their adopted children home.