On Monday, the Inspector General reported that 858 individuals from “special interest countries” – meaning countries that are considered to be “of concern to the national security” of the USA – were supposed to have been deported but were instead granted U.S. citizenship.
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“USCIS granted US citizenship to at least 858 individuals ordered deported or removed under another identity when, during the naturalization process, their digital fingerprint records were not in the DHS digital fingerprint repository”, the inspector general said. He said the mistakes happened because the applicants’ fingerprints were missing from government databases.
The report also revealed that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services failed to catch fraudulent names and birth dates due to missing fingerprint records. The error, it says, was found during an investigation into whether U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been using personal information databases effectively for naturalization applications. Roth’s report cited at least three immigrants who were cleared for citizenship that managed to obtain aviation or transportation worker credentials, which allows them employment-based access to security-regulated areas of airports, maritime buildings and sea craft.
Almost 150,000 older fingerprint records weren’t digitized or simply weren’t included in Homeland Security’s databases when they were being developed, the report said.
Almost 150,000 older fingerprint records were not digitized or simply were not included in the Department of Homeland Security’s databases when they were being developed, the report said.
The individuals slipped through the system because their digital fingerprint records were not in the DHS’s or FBI’s databases, according to the audit.
ICE, the DHS agency responsible for finding and deporting immigrants living in the country illegally, reportedly failed to consistently add digital fingerprint of immigrants.
ICE is investigating 32 other cases after closing 90 investigations. President Obama has never prioritized border security and enforcement of our existing immigration laws, and now the American people are put at risk because of his own carelessness. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General says bad fingerprint records are to blame.
USCIS granted US citizenship to at least 858 individuals ordered deported or removed under another identity when, during the naturalization process, their digital fingerprint records were not available. A fourth person is now a law enforcement official, the audit said, without adding further information. Those credentials were revoked after it was discovered they got citizenship improperly. “Where the DHS review process finds that naturalization was obtained fraudulently, DHS will appropriately refer the case to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for civil or criminal proceedings, including for denaturalization”. DHS officials agreed with the inspector general’s report and said the government is working on implementing changes and corrective actions.
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The DHS admits that this shows a larger problem for officials-the fact that numerous older paper-based records with fingerprint info can’t be searched electronically-but that immigration authorities are working on uploading the files now and that they’ll review “every file” of those flagged as possible frauds.
