The U.S. government shreds thousands of immigration applications
that are not approved every year. The result is an unfortunate loss for genealogists
who often find great information in naturalization and immigration papers (whether
successful or not) for their ancestors.
Perhaps the FBI and CIA have an even greater loss. Senior counterterrorism
and law enforcement officials say they were unaware of the State Department's
practice and believe the information should be preserved for potential use in
terrorism investigations.
You can read the entire story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020821/ap_wo_en_po/us_visa_shredding_1
My thanks to Chad Leinaweaver for telling me about this story.
Dick Eastman Online
