U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services didn’t discover the immigrants’ other identities because their fingerprint records at the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation had not yet been fully entered into the digital database.
Advertisement
At least 858 people from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders became citizens, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general said immigrants were able to apply for citizenship using different names or birthdates because government databases failed to retain records of their fingerprints, the Associated Press reported.
The immigrants with questionable backgrounds were not identified by name but reportedly all came from “special interest countries”. Almost 1,000 immigrants from nations that are considered to be a risk to our national security were granted citizenship; sleep well tonight, folks. Those credentials were revoked after it was discovered they got citizenship improperly. DHS said immigration officials are now digitizing those files and vowed to review every file identified as potentially fraudulent.
It recommends the remaining older fingerprint records be digitized and that DHS review “the eligibility of each naturalized citizen whose fingerprint records reveal deportation orders under a different identity” and decide whether to seek denaturalization.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not reviewed about 148,000 of those immigrants’ files to add fingerprints to the digital record.
“Incomplete digital fingerprint records hinder adjudicators’ full review of naturalization applications and may lead to USCIS granting the rights and privileges of US citizenship to those who may be ineligible or may be trying to obtain citizenship fraudulently”, the DHS inspector general’s office said in a statement. But prosecutors declined another 26 cases.
A fourth person is now a law enforcement officer. Some of those cases will be investigated by the end of the year, the report said.
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’.
The report said there are still about 150,000 immigrants ineligible for citizenship whose fingerprints have not been added to the system.
The report noted that the department has concurred with its recommendations and has begun implementing corrective actions. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
Advertisement
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
