More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship

[HannahT]

I saw this AP Article this morning on Yahoo.

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.

This type of thing is what scares people, although I realize others do minimize it too.

We seem to have such a kooky system.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Well, they can likely pull their citizenship I KNOW you can loose it.

 

[VanillaSunflowers]

When Obama has only a few months left in power here, people of concern were mistakenly granted citizenship. Boy that puts a new tilt on 'government oversight'. Yes, those mistakes can be corrected and stripped.

Their fingerprints were missing from government databases. Wow.

 

[Sistrin]

It would really be interesting to know how many of these mistakes will be allowed to vote in November.

 

[HannahT]

When Obama has only a few months left in power here, people of concern were mistakenly granted citizenship. Boy that puts a new tilt on 'government oversight'. Yes, those mistakes can be corrected and stripped.

Their fingerprints were missing from government databases. Wow.

This has nothing to do with Obama for me. It's the crazy system we have, and mistakes that we have been finding for years. lol not the last few months! This is the same system that claims we vet properly, and immigration isn't the huge issue we have been told about.

It maybe something that people claim is no big deal, but we also need to acknowledge those that see it as a red flag.

 

[Goonie]

It would really be interesting to know how many of these mistakes will be allowed to vote in November.

Because those 800+ immigrants will really swing it for....

Seriously too few to affect the election.

 

[joshua 1 9]

[

 

[joshua 1 9]

their fingerprints were missing from government databases.

Sounds like they need to get their fingerprint system straightened out.

 

[wing2000]

When Obama has only a few months left in power here, people of concern were mistakenly granted citizenship. Boy that puts a new tilt on 'government oversight'. Yes, those mistakes can be corrected and stripped.

Their fingerprints were missing from government databases. Wow.

From the AP article:

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.

 

[VanillaSunflowers]

They've known about it since at least the first year Obama took office. And there is still an information gap. That's a real shame.

 

[wing2000]

The problem extends back to the 1990's as the article notes. I agree the gap could have been closed faster....but I'm guessing some INS, and later DHS bureaucrat(s) made budget decisions to not fund the transfer of old paper based records to digital records.


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.

 

[Sistrin]

Because those 800+ immigrants will really swing it for....

Seriously too few to affect the election.

Not the point.