Veteran immigration employee named to lead LA's INS office

Saturday December 07, 2002

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Immigration and Naturalization Service on Friday announced that a 26-year veteran has been named to lead the agency's district office in Los Angeles.

Ronald J. Smith, 53, will oversee INS enforcement and service activities in seven Southern California counties. He is scheduled to assume his new duties Monday.

Smith has been the acting district director of the agency's office in Phoenix. Before taking that job last summer, he ran the district office in Portland, Ore., where he was credited with dramatically improving employee morale and community relations in what the INS said had been a troubled office.

The Texas native served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force for five years before joining the INS in 1976.

He started his INS career as a Border Patrol agent in Calexico, and after seven years with the Border Patrol he became an INS special agent in the San Diego district.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)