why this fellow needs to find a new job, for he sure is screwing up the one he currently has, or is he. Maybe, just maybe, he’s following orders and doing just what he was put there to do. Who knows? You will not believe this this, trust me!
Secretary Jeh Johnson oversees the third largest Cabinet department and leads our nation’s efforts to secure our country from terrorism to natural disasters.
More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL | September 19, 2016 | 5:15 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.
The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the immigrants used different names or birth dates to apply for citizenship with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and such discrepancies weren’t caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases.
DHS said in an emailed statement that an initial review of these cases suggest that some of the individuals may have ultimately qualified for citizenship, and that the lack of digital fingerprint records does not necessarily mean they committed fraud.
The report does not identify any of the immigrants by name, but Inspector General John Roth’s auditors said they were all from “special interest countries” — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify those countries.
DHS said the findings reflect what has long been a problem for immigration officials — old paper-based records containing fingerprint information that can’t be searched electronically. DHS says immigration officials are in the process of uploading these files and that officials will review “every file” identified as a case of possible fraud.
Roth’s report said fingerprints are missing from federal databases for as many as 315,000 immigrants with final deportation orders or who are fugitive criminals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not reviewed about 148,000 of those immigrants’ files to add fingerprints to the digital record.
The gap was created because older, paper records were never added to fingerprint databases created by both the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI in the 1990s. ICE, the DHS agency responsible for finding and deporting immigrants living in the country illegally, didn’t consistently add digital fingerprint records of immigrants whom agents encountered until 2010.
The government has known about the information gap and its impact on naturalization decisions since at least 2008 when a Customs and Border Protection official identified 206 immigrants who used a different name or other biographical information to gain citizenship or other immigration benefits, though few cases have been investigated.
Roth’s report said federal prosecutors have accepted two criminal cases that led to the immigrants being stripped of their citizenship. But prosecutors declined another 26 cases. ICE is investigating 32 other cases after closing 90 investigations.
ICE officials told auditors that the agency hadn’t pursued many of these cases in the past because federal prosecutors “generally did not accept immigration benefits fraud cases.” ICE said the Justice Department has now agreed to focus on cases involving people who have acquired security clearances, jobs of public trust or other security credentials.
Several members of Congress criticized the Obama administration Monday in the wake of Roth’s report, though the report suggests that the gaps extend several years earlier than the Obama administration.
Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul said ICE should quickly investigate all of the cases at issue and ensure that all immigration fingerprint records are digitized in short order.
Mistakenly awarding citizenship to someone ordered deported can have serious consequences because U.S. citizens can typically apply for and receive security clearances or take security-sensitive jobs.
At least three of the immigrants-turned-citizens were able to acquire aviation or transportation worker credentials, granting them access to secure areas in airports or maritime facilities and vessels. Their credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report.
A fourth person is now a law enforcement officer.
Roth recommended that all of the outstanding cases be reviewed and fingerprints in those cases be added to the government’s database and that immigration enforcement officials create a system to evaluate each of the cases of immigrants who were improperly granted citizenship. DHS officials agreed with the recommendations and said the agency is working to implement the changes.
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Originally posted 2016-09-20 10:59:50.
I’m next to agree on this intentional “mistake.” And the latest numbers are around 1400 citizenship papers granted to criminals to be deported. Obama and is buddy Saul Alinsky are working hard to cause as much damage as possible before he hands over the White House.
And handing over the WH cannot come too soon for those of us who truly care. And hopefully that person who moves into the WH will be the one that will put the Clinton’s where they both belong — in jail. He gave them a warning at the last debate, and that’s why so many of the so-called GOP folks are backsliding, they stand a chance of losing their golden eggs. There is a ground swell within the Nation right now, but my only fear is the crooked Libs who will steal this election anyway they can. So, don’t forget to wear a red shirt when you go to the polls!
This was neither mistake nor incompetence but an element of the ongoing deliberate attack, waged by the White House, on America. But fools do not see and conclude the obvious.
Yes, Andy, you and I and most on this blog see it for what it clearly is, while others refuse to think our government could do such a dastardly deed. How naive some came be.