Government Insider: “Immigration Vetting System Badly Broken”
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security found that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) erroneously naturalized almost 900 ineligible illegal aliens due to database errors. All of these individuals were ordered deported but subsequently applied for citizenship using a fake identity. Nearly all are from countries associated with terrorism and high levels of immigration fraud. Several of these fraudulent citizens have already obtained aviation or transportation credentials.This information is disturbing but it simply confirms what those in immigration enforcement have known for years — our immigration vetting system is badly broken. But the availability and reliability of vetting information is only one of many systemic problems that plague USCIS: an assembly line mentality, over-politicization, and ineptitude.Attempting to vet individuals from the most dangerous regions of the world in less than three months is criminally irresponsible.One of the reasons I resigned from USCIS was dissatisfaction with the agency’s continual focus on approving as many immigration applications as possible, as quickly as possible — often at the expense of national security and public safety.Read the rest of Matt O’Brien’s guest column in Lifezette.com here.