Posted on 04/06/2006 12:17:07 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Corruption plagues the agency that determines the legal status of immigrants, and its employees often don't conduct proper background checks of immigration applicants, a former agency official told lawmakers Thursday.
As a result, "the integrity of the United States immigration system has also been corrupted and the system is incapable of ensuring the security of our homeland," Michael Maxwell said.
"Ours is a system that rewards criminals, facilitates the movement of terrorists, (and) supports foreign agents," said Maxwell, who had been in charge of the Office of Security and Investigations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services until resigning in February.
The agency's director, Emilio Gonzalez, has said that the Homeland Security Department's inspector general will investigate reports of fraud and sloppy procedures. Gonzalez also has insisted that security concerns come first even though the agency is under pressure to get through a backlog of immigration applications.
Angelica Alfonso-Royals, a spokeswoman, said Thursday the agency's top priority "continues to be preserving and enhancing the integrity of the immigration system." She said the agency has confidence in the system but continually strives for improvement and "it takes allegations seriously."
Maxwell testified before the House International Relations Committee's terrorism and nonproliferation panel. He alleged that the agency has awarded immigrant benefits, including citizenship, without complete background checks.
In addition, he said, the agency has failed to investigate more than 500 criminal complaints against its own employees for allegations that include bribery, harboring illegals, money laundering and aiding known terrorists or being influenced by foreign intelligence services.
In one example, Maxwell said, the agency employed an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen suspected of being a foreign intelligence agent to review asylum applications.
"These breaches compromise virtually every part of the immigration system itself, leaving vulnerabilities that have been and likely are being exploited by criminals and adversaries of the United States," Maxwell said.
He said the agency's senior officials repeatedly ignored major national security vulnerabilities, covered them up or dismissed them.
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On the Net:
Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: http://uscis.gov
Yes, our fine government again shows its competency, honesty and gives up plenty to be proud of. (/sarcasm)
At the rate we are going, we will not be admitting we even have a government that we work half our adult lives to pay for....
Hey, just another employer trying to hire labor on the cheap...
It may be time to redirect those suspect asylum applications to nations that "value diversity and tolerance"; I'd nominate Sweden, France and the Latin American countries. Surely an asylum seeker wouldn't mind moving to Argentina as opposed to the United States. After all, they are fleeing persecution as opposed to seeking economic betterment, right?
This is the agency that'll be picking up 12 million new amnesty applications in 2007, if Jorge Bush has his way.
They can't even deal with what they have now.
I made that argument on C-Span this morning on Washington Journal.
I also called my Senators and Congressional Rep and asked the same question. The response I got was, "I will pass your message on to the rep."
Sorry I missed it.
I've done the same thing. And my Reps and Senators also know it. They agree (staffers, anyway).
This is a disaster not "waiting to happen", but programmed and destined to happen.
Everyone on Capitol Hill knows the disastrous condition of the INS/CIS. The American people do not (and why should they? they're not involved in immigration matters).
But the utter duplicity here is astonishing. INS/CIS cannot possibly deal with 12 million new applications.
Or even 1/10th that.
On Rush this a.m. a man called in and said he worked at an American Port of Entry. He claimed that our govt is still processing amnesty paperwork from the Reagan 1986 Amnesty program!
Can anyone confirm?
I heard that caller as well.
Hope someone can corroborate.. I am not shocked , if so, however. ;-)
Can't be. George W. Bush is in the White House. And he's a Republican.
That's not impossible. Some applicants' papers get lost, and as a result, their applications take over 10 years for just one step in the process. Problems occur more often if the applicant moves and his paperwork is transfered to another office (and then lost in the process). Other times, the FBI background checks may take many years to be processed.
What I wondered is why a woman who called in to Rush's show (near the end today) and claimed to have been an illegal alien for two decades never bothered to apply for amnesty a decade ago, in the 90's.
There were some other things that woman from Venezuela said that didn't add up imo. She said she had a bachelors degree. Yet she said she had never worked because no one will hire you without a SS card or other required ID.
Why does someone get a degree knowing that they'll never get a job? And even if you can't get a job utilizing your degree, you should be able to get some job some where. Yet she claims she's never taken any welfare or help of any kind from the govt. Which in and of itself is not true in that she attended public school here from age 9 according to her story.
I think the story is BS.
It sure sounded that way. Perhaps Rush was just letting her keep talking because her own words discredited her story.
Why does someone get a degree knowing that they'll never get a job?
It sometimes happens. Previously, some women went to college to meet a husband. Some people major in unmarketable degrees purely for personal interest. Maybe she's still in school, so she doesn't have a job yet? Less likely, maybe she manages investments or runs her own business, in which case she doesn't get hired in a job.
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