Obama Administration’s Rubber-Stamping of Citizenship Requests Puts National Security At Risk, Immigration Services Union President Says
Pressure from the Obama
administration to rubber-stamp citizenship applicants and the failure of
the Department of Homeland Security to properly train personnel and
give them the tools to vet those applications have jeopardized U.S.
national security, federal law enforcement officials and a Homeland
Security union leader told TheBlaze.
New U.S. citizens participate in a swearing-in during a naturalization ceremony Aug. 13, 2013 in Fairfax, Va. (Getty Images)
Kenneth Palinkas, president of the
National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, the union
representing 12,000 United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
officers and staff, told TheBlaze Congress needs to investigate why his
agency has been left without proper tools to screen applicants and made
the nation vulnerable.
Palinkas said employees are required by
administrative orders “to grant immigration benefits to those who,
under law, are not properly eligible.”
Further, approval quotas placed on
adjudicators — personnel that conduct the interviews of prospective
citizens — emphasize clearing applications faster than they can be
vetted and lead to a majority of prospective applications being approved
for entry into the U.S.
“USCIS adjudications officers lack the
mission support to safely screen and review applicants for immigration
benefits,” Palinkas said in a press release obtained by TheBlaze in
advance of planned distribution on Thursday. “This includes the
inability to conduct in-person interviews, the failure of our software
system, the lack of training and office space, and pressure to
rubber-stamp applications. We have become an approval machine.”
“We have become an approval machine,” says U.S. immigration services union president.
Share:
Palinkas said in a phone interview that
administration officials have created obstacles that have made it
impossible for his employees to take the time necessary to adjudicate
applicants, and that House members have ignored his calls to
investigate.
He said Congress needs to probe the multiple failures in the agency, including:
- Why adjudications officers lack the mission support to safely screen and review applicants for immigration benefits
- The failure to thoroughly conduct in-person interviews
- The failure of the software system
- The lack of training and office space
- The pressure to rubber-stamp applications
- The failure to protect taxpayers from abuses of the welfare system by those granted immigration benefits
- A management culture that sees illegal aliens and foreign nationals — not U.S. citizens and taxpayers — as the customer: “We believe in treating all with respect and always will, but our agency’s focus must be keeping the country safe and secure on behalf of the American people.”
Palinkas said a move by Republican
members to push through piecemeal immigration legislation from the
House to the Senate without resolving the current failures in the system
would be detrimental for the country.
“I worry the House may be following a similar path,” he said.
Last week, TheBlaze reported
that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia
Republican, along with other senior House leaders, have been working to
move forward with legislation to open citizenship benefits to illegal
aliens residing in the United States.
There is also growing concern among
some Republican House members that leaders within their own party are
working to get the bills passed to the Senate, leading to private
“conference” meetings where House and Senate leaders will compromise on a
comprehensive immigration bill that guts border security.
“These plans are being pursued before
first reforming the very agency – USCIS – that will be charged with
reviewing these tens of millions of green card, temporary visa and
citizenship applications,” Palinkas said. “Advancing such measures
without first confronting the widespread abuses at USCIS would be to
invite disaster. Why aren’t USCIS officers being consulted on this
‘compromise’ offer?”
“It’s business as usual until one of the applicants… launches another terrorist attack.”
Share:
Seven years ago an investigation by this reporter
regarding USCIS led to numerous congressional hearings, but little has
changed. In August 2006, House members called for a review and hearing
after reports surfaced that adjudicators were not checking applications
against the terrorist watch list.
In fact, Homeland Security officials
said they opted out of training most adjudicators on how to access the
terrorist database — a simple key stroke that would have allowed them to
fully check the background. The report was based on federal documents
and numerous interviews with employees at the National Benefits Center
in Lee’s Summit, Mo., where most applications are processed.
“Nothing has changed,” a Homeland
Security official told TheBlaze on condition of anonymity. “More than
six years since the first hearings and nothing is different – not
really. How many House hearings in between and it’s business as usual
until one of the applicants we’ve allowed into the country successfully
launches another terrorist attack inside the U.S.”
–
No comments:
Post a Comment