The number of individuals who were supposed to have been deported but were instead granted citizenship is far higher than was initially reported by media covering the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s office report on the matter.
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The OIG recommended that ICE finish uploading the fingerprints it identified into the digital repository and that DHS resolve cases of naturalized citizens who may have been ineligible – proposals DHS spokesman Neema Hakim said in a statement the department was “expeditiously” embracing.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office checks the fingerprint records of applicants to gather information about any other identities they may have used, criminal arrests and convictions, immigration violations, deportations and links to terrorism.
More than 850 people were accidentally granted US citizenship despite being from countries with a history of immigration fraud or that raised national security concerns.
In three of those cases, the report found, individuals were able to obtain credentials to conduct security-sensitive work at commercial airports or maritime facilities and vessels.
Incomplete digital fingerprint records hinder the full review of naturalization applications and may lead to granting the rights and privileges of USA citizenship to those who may be ineligible or may be trying to obtain citizenship fraudulently.
Hakim said Homeland Security has begun reviewing the files identified in the report and has already identified 120 individuals who appear to have committed fraud.
The gap in fingerprints was created because older, paper records were never added to fingerprint databases created by both the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the 1990s. ICE, formed in 2003, didn’t even consistently add digital fingerprint records until 2010.
Failure to digitize these records risks “making naturalization decisions without complete information and, as a result, naturalizing additional individuals who may be ineligible for citizenship or who may be trying to obtain U.S. citizenship fraudulently”, the report added. But prosecutors declined another 26 cases.
“This failure represents a significant risk to America’s national security as these naturalised individuals have access to serve in positions of public trust and the ability to obtain security clearances”, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
“The Obama administration must be put on notice that there can be no room for election year politics in matters of homeland security”, she continued. The officials will also review the files in this case to search for possible fraud.
Mistakenly awarding citizenship to someone ordered deported can have serious consequences because USA citizens can typically apply for and receive security clearances or take security-sensitive jobs. Their credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report. The report exposes two vulnerabilities in the process: Neither of those databases includes all old fingerprints, the report says, nor have roughly 148,000 older fingerprints records of aliens with fugitive or criminal status from “special interest” or high security concern countries been digitized.
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The report noted that the department has concurred with its recommendations and has begun implementing corrective actions.
