Ugo Carusi, lawyer and a former immigration commissioner.

But he also said the immigration commissioner, James Ziglar, should be given a chance to grapple with the agency's antiquated information system.

The immigration commissioner, James W. Ziglar, has said the agency was reviewing its use of X-rays to determine age.

"Every immigration commissioner has tried restructuring the agency and things have only gotten worse rather than better," Mr. Sensenbrenner said today.

But as her impatient immigration commissioner, Miriam Defensor Santiago, said in a recent interview, the President has her own sense of timing.

Doris Meissner, the federal immigration commissioner from 1993 to 2000, said the change was similar to other blanket policies imposed by the Bush administration.

Q: A final question: If Dole wins the Presidency, will you be his immigration commissioner?

"We are trying to send a message," said Doris M. Meissner, the immigration commissioner.

And carrying out the complex details of such a plan would fall to a neophyte federal immigration commissioner.

Mr. Ziglar, the immigration commissioner, echoed that sentiment.