858 immigrants, scheduled to be deported, mistakenly granted citizenship

[jimmy olsen]

Christ

Not only is this an unbelievable fuck up, I think it's something that could really help Trump win the election by a solid margin if he plays it the right way.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-800-immigrants-mistakenly-granted-citizenship-130452164--politics.html

More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship

September 20, 2016

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 birthdates 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.

[11B4V]

Your government at work. You trust them to bring in Syrian refugees.

[Martinus]

Hey, at least they didn't repost a picture of candy.

[HVC]

In Canada you can revoke citizenship based on things like false statements on your application. I'm sure most fun tries have similar clauses

*edit* marti changed his post. My reply made more sense before

[grumbler]

Tim gives us a fraudulent thread title once again.  Yay, Timmay!  Why don't you make it a megathread?

[jimmy olsen]

Tim gives us a fraudulent thread title once again.  Yay, Timmay!  Why don't you make it a megathread?

What?

[garbon]

Well one problem with the title is it makes it seem as though the government instead of checking deportation box accidentally checked grant citizenship box. What appears to actually have happened is that because of incomplete records/antiquated databases, they approved citizenship for individuals who would have been ineligible had employees been able to properly check records.

[grumbler]

Well one problem with the title is it makes it seem as though the government instead of checking deportation box accidentally checked grant citizenship box. What appears to actually have happened is that because of incomplete records/antiquated databases, they approved citizenship for individuals who would have been ineligible had employees been able to properly check records.

Well, that, and the fact that "scheduled to be deported" only applies to a few of them.  Oh, and the fact that the number of 858 isn't the total, it is just the number so far identified.

So, if we strike the fraudulent portions of the title, we get "immigrants granted citizenship."  TEH HOROR!

[grumbler]

In Canada you can revoke citizenship based on things like false statements on your application. I'm sure most fun tries have similar clauses

*edit* marti changed his post. My reply made more sense before

"Fun tries" in place of "countries" doesn't help! 

But, yes, citizenship obtained by fraud is revoked in most countries.

[DGuller]

In Canada you can revoke citizenship based on things like false statements on your application. I'm sure most fun tries have similar clauses

Yes, it can be revoked in US as well, and it's made abundantly clear during your process of getting one.

[HVC]

In Canada you can revoke citizenship based on things like false statements on your application. I'm sure most fun tries have similar clauses

*edit* marti changed his post. My reply made more sense before

"Fun tries" in place of "countries" doesn't help! 

But, yes, citizenship obtained by fraud is revoked in most countries.

Whoopsie