"How do we solve this backlog?" "Shred everything."

Apparently the file room manager at the INS processing facility in LA decided to rid herself of a 90K document backlog not by processing them faster, or hiring more workers, but by SHREDDING them. We’re talking about passports, visa and residency applications, requests for important life-altering stuff here. And she and her supervisor decide the best way to deal with this is to shred it all.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Hypothetical:

Suppose in Authoritaria a mean old hag who runs the local bureaucracy is so overworked that she goes insane and shreds all the government records she can find.

Nah. Too absurd.

I’m just stunned that the manager was only 24 years old in a government position.

FUCK.

Two years ago, my wife and I LIVED in California. Those could have been our passports/immigration documents/applications that were shredded. I honestly thought that I couldn’t despise the INS any more than I already do. But clearly I have underestimated the depth of the vast chasm of their incompetence.

(Of course, the voice of reason in my head…stupid bastard…is pointing out that they’ve only been charged. Perhaps I should save the swearing until they’re convicted. Nah.)

Oh, and Lib? Way to not make a point there. Very well not done.

What is probably sad here is that the manager probably was screaming for help about the backlog and was rebuffed. He/she finally cracked. Too bad he/she couldn’t quit…but where could a 24 year old with minimal experience get a job that paid as much as he/she made as a manger with INS and all those benefits…

Man Libertaria better be a 100% paperless, electionic formless, super society where no important documents exist.

Minor clarification here: the INS contracted the operation of these centers through a company in Maryland, which in turn subcontracted through two others. So they’re contractors, technically. (As a current fed, the distinction is noteworthy to me at least).

It’s still a stunning display of arrogance and abuse of the rules. I’d love to see what defense she puts up.

“I can do anything I want; I work for the government.”

Feh. Just declare eminent domain and be done with it.