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WASHINGTON, D.C., August 2, 2002: More than two million documents filed by foreigners, from change of address forms to requests for benefits, have been piling up for years and only now are being reviewed by the government, senior U.S. officials said Friday. Immigration experts and civil rights groups said the situation is embarrassing to the government and an affront to foreigners who have tried to play by the rules. “It exposes one of the INS’ dirty secrets,” said Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s immigration rights project. “The agency’s own record-keeping and information systems are completely inadequate, yet it so often turns around and punishes law-abiding immigrants when the agency’s own shoddy record keeping is at fault.”
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